Cavity quantum electrodynamics design with single photon emitters in hexagonal boron nitride

Abstract

Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), a prevalent insulating crystal for dielectric and encapsulation layers in two-dimensional (2D) nanoelectronics and a structural material in 2D nanoelectromechanical systems, has also rapidly emerged as a promising platform for quantum photonics with the recent discovery of optically active defect centers and associated spin states. Combined with measured emission characteristics, here we propose and numerically investigate the cavity quantum electrodynamics scheme, incorporating these defect-enabled single photon emitters (SPEs) in h-BN microdisk resonators. The whispering-gallery nature of microdisks can support multiple families of cavity resonances with different radial and azimuthal mode indices simultaneously, overcoming the challenges in coinciding a single point defect with the maximum electric field of an optical mode both spatially and spectrally. The excellent characteristics of h-BN SPEs, including exceptional emission rate, considerably high Debye–Waller factor, and Fourier transform limited linewidth at room temperature, render strong coupling with the ratio of coupling to decay rates g/max(γ, κ) predicated as high as 500. This study not only provides insight into the emitter–cavity interaction, but also contributes toward realizing h-BN photonic components, such as low-threshold microcavity lasers and high-purity single photon sources, critical for linear optics quantum computing and quantum networking applications.