Abstract
In this small review, we recall two promising candidates for biomarker nanosystems, in which a two-site defect embedded in a diamond-like lattice makes a single-photon source. The two candidates are the silicon-vacancy defect in diamond, and the carbon antisite-vacancy pair in 4H silicon carbide.These defects, which by symmetry resemble to the famous nitrogen-vacancy defect in diamond, bear an exact or nearly exact C 3v symmetry, giving them selection rules which lead their important magnetooptical properties. The embedding diamond-like crystal lattice not only determines the symmetry of two-site defects, but also ensure a nontoxic vehicle on which they reside; a definitive requirement against biomarker nanosystems.In the silicon-vacancy case, the size of the biomarker system is also an important feature. Nanoparticles of the embedding crystal do not exceed the size of molecular clusters, in order to be able to aid measuring all types of relevant biomolecular processes.
Highlights
IntroductionFluorescent nanosystems, and nanosystems with special other optical and magnetooptical properties are sought-after tools for a wide range of applications, e.g. spintronics[1, 2], quantum computing[3,4,5,6], nanometrology[7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18], biosensing[19,20,21], and experimental validation of foundations of quantum mechanics[18, 22]
We have investigated two candidates for single-photon emitter point defects in diamond and silicon carbide
Experimental proof of single-photon emitting nature was completed by theoretical study of electronic structures, symmetries and photoluminescence mechanisms
Summary
Fluorescent nanosystems, and nanosystems with special other optical and magnetooptical properties are sought-after tools for a wide range of applications, e.g. spintronics[1, 2], quantum computing[3,4,5,6], nanometrology[7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18], biosensing[19,20,21], and experimental validation of foundations of quantum mechanics[18, 22] Among these systems, point defects in crystalline materials form the tiniest ones.
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