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Quantum Emitters in Hexagonal Boron Nitride Have Spectrally Tunable Quantum Efficiency
Author(s) -
Schell Andreas W.,
Svedendahl Mikael,
Quidant Romain
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.201704237
Subject(s) - materials science , hexagonal boron nitride , optoelectronics , nitride , quantum efficiency , hexagonal crystal system , quantum , boron nitride , nanotechnology , graphene , crystallography , quantum mechanics , physics , chemistry , layer (electronics)
Understanding the properties of novel solid‐state quantum emitters is pivotal for a variety of applications in research fields ranging from quantum optics to biology. Recently discovered defects in hexagonal boron nitride are especially interesting, as they offer much desired characteristics such as narrow emission lines and photostability. Here, the dependence of the emission on the excitation wavelength is studied. It is found that, in order to achieve bright single‐photon emission with high quantum efficiency, the excitation wavelength has to be matched to the emitter. This is a strong indication that the emitters possess a complex level scheme and cannot be described by a simple two or three‐level system. Using this excitation dependence of the emission, further insight to the internal level scheme is gained and it is demonstrated how to distinguish different emitters both spatially as well as in terms of their photon correlations.