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Abstract
Optically addressable spins associated with defects in wide-bandgap semiconductors are versatile platforms for quantum information processing and nanoscale sensing, where spin-dependent inter-system crossing transitions facilitate optical spin initialization and readout. Recently, the van der Waals material hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) has emerged as a robust host for quantum emitters, promising efficient photon extraction and atom-scale engineering, but observations of spin-related effects have remained thus far elusive. Here, we report room-temperature observations of strongly anisotropic photoluminescence patterns as a function of applied magnetic field for select quantum emitters in h-BN. Field-dependent variations in the steady-state photoluminescence and photon emission statistics are consistent with an electronic model featuring a spin-dependent inter-system crossing between triplet and singlet manifolds, indicating that optically-addressable spin defects are present in h-BN.
Highlights
Addressable spins associated with defects in wide-bandgap semiconductors are versatile platforms for quantum information processing and nanoscale sensing, where spindependent inter-system crossing transitions facilitate optical spin initialization and readout
We demonstrate that select quantum emitters (QEs) in hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) do exhibit room-temperature, magnetic-fielddependent PL consistent with a spin-dependent inter-system crossing (ISC), paving the way to the development of 2D quantum spintronics
We study a 400-nm thick exfoliated h-BN flake suspended across a set of holes etched in a silicon substrate at room temperature in ambient conditions [Fig. 1a]
Summary
Addressable spins associated with defects in wide-bandgap semiconductors are versatile platforms for quantum information processing and nanoscale sensing, where spindependent inter-system crossing transitions facilitate optical spin initialization and readout. The van der Waals material hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) has emerged as a robust host for quantum emitters, promising efficient photon extraction and atom-scale engineering, but observations of spin-related effects have remained far elusive. Field-dependent variations in the steady-state photoluminescence and photon emission statistics are consistent with an electronic model featuring a spin-dependent inter-system crossing between triplet and singlet manifolds, indicating that optically-addressable spin defects are present in h-BN. Quantum emission in h-BN16–22 is believed to originate from defects with localized electronic states deep within its bandgap, to other wide-bandgap materials exhibiting defect-related singlephoton emission[23] Even in this expanding catalog of materials and their numerous fluorescent defects[24], room-temperature, spin-dependent PL remains a rare phenomenon due to the necessary alignment of energy levels and symmetry-protected selection rules. We demonstrate that select QEs in h-BN do exhibit room-temperature, magnetic-fielddependent PL consistent with a spin-dependent ISC, paving the way to the development of 2D quantum spintronics
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