Abstract
Controlled production of defects in hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) through ion irradiation has recently been demonstrated to be an effective tool for adding new functionalities to this material, such as single-photon generation, and for developing optical quantum applications. Using analytical potential molecular dynamics, we study the mechanisms of vacancy creation in single- and multi-layer h-BN under low- and high-fluence ion irradiation. Our results quantify the densities of defects produced by noble gas ions in a wide range of ion energies and elucidate the types and distribution of defects in the target. The simulation data can directly be used to guide the experiment aimed at the creation of defects of particular types in h-BN targets for single-photon emission, spin-selective optical transitions and other applications by using beams of energetic ions.
Highlights
Defects in solids, which are frequently portrayed as culprits only capable of deteriorating materials’ properties, have recently been, if not fully ’acquitted’, referred to positively due to their important role in various quantum phenomena and related possible applications
The number of defects produced in Hexagonal boron-nitride (h-BN) sheets under irradiation is known to depend on ion fluence, incident energy, projectile mass and the target thickness
We performed analytical potential molecular dynamics (MD) simulations aimed at getting microscopic insight into the defect production in mono- and multi-layer h-BN under noble gas ion irradiation at various fluences, over a wide range of incident energies
Summary
Defects in solids, which are frequently portrayed as culprits only capable of deteriorating materials’ properties, have recently been, if not fully ’acquitted’, referred to positively due to their important role in various quantum phenomena and related possible applications. Hexagonal boron-nitride (h-BN) [8,9] has received a considerable amount of attention in the context of defect-mediated optical response and potential applications in quantum technologies [10,11,12,13] This material with a rather wide bandgap of 5.95 eV [14]. We note that in a wider context, understanding the response of h-BN to irradiation is important for the use of this material in various radiation-related applications, such as neutron and particle detectors and scintillators [9,28,31] To this end, atomistic computer simulations have been demonstrated to be a useful tool to get microscopic insights into defect production and choose the range of parameters optimal for a specific task. We investigate the single-impact, and the highfluence limit
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