Researchers Develop Scalable Method to Create Single-Photon Emitter Arrays in Boron Nitride
Scientists have developed a three-step fabrication process to create spatially controlled arrays of single-photon emitters (SPEs) in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) with an ~89% site-correlated yield across 100 fabrication sites. The lithography-free method combines gallium focused ion beam milling, nanoscale carbon deposition, and thermal annealing. This advance addresses a key scalability challenge for building on-chip quantum photonic circuits that operate at room temperature.
A research team has reported a novel three-step process for deterministically generating single-photon emitter arrays in hexagonal boron nitride, a van der Waals material of strong interest for quantum photonics. The fabrication sequence involves site-selective gallium focused ion beam milling to define locations, conformal nanoscale carbon deposition over the patterned regions, and subsequent thermal annealing. Together, these steps produced an emitter yield of approximately 89% across 100 targeted fabrication sites. The best-performing emitters demonstrated high single-photon purity, with second-order autocorrelation values of g²(0) = 0.15 ± 0.09, and measurements revealed pronounced three-level emitter dynamics. The authors claim this is the first lithography-free, direct-write approach combining all three techniques for deterministic hBN SPE generation, and they validated reproducibility across multiple independently fabricated samples. The method offers a scalable pathway toward on-demand SPE arrays compatible with integrated quantum photonic platforms at room temperature.
What's missing
The study does not report the optical brightness or photon emission rates of the fabricated emitters, which are critical figures of merit for practical quantum photonic integration alongside purity. The spectral stability and long-term coherence properties of the emitters under operating conditions are also not addressed.
What different sources said
- arXiv physicsCenter
Deterministic Single-Photon Emitter Arrays in Hexagonal Boron Nitride by Carbon-Assisted Focused Ion Beam Engineering
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