Annealing of blue quantum emitters in carbon-doped hexagonal boron nitride

Abstract

Reliable methods to create quantum emitters in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) are highly sought after for scalable applications in quantum photonic devices. Specifically, recent efforts have focused on defects in hBN with a zero phonon line at 2.8 eV (436 nm). Here, we employ carbon-doped hBN crystals that were irradiated by an electron beam to generate these emitters and perform annealing treatments to investigate the stability of the emitters. We find that the blue emitters are stable up to ∼800 °C. However, upon annealing to 1000 °C, the emitters disappear, and a family of other emitters appears in the region of hBN that had been irradiated by an electron beam. Our findings contribute to the understanding of emitter species and emitter formation in hBN.