Here, ultra‐long lifetimes of defect‐trapped single quantum emitters (SQEs) in monolayer WSe2/hBN heterostructures are reported. The lifetimes of these SQEs are approximately 225 ns, more than two orders of magnitude larger than what has been previously reported for defect‐trapped excitons in WSe2. These SQEs consist of co‐linearly polarized doublet peaks with a fine structure splitting of 0.45 meV. Second‐order correlation measurements show antibunched single‐photon emission with a g(2)(0) value of ≈0.13. Through numerical analysis and modeling, it is shown how such long‐lifetime single emitters can arise from bright and dark exciton coupling in antisite defects on the W sites. Additionally, high‐quality single‐photon emission over a wide range of lifetimes—from 2 ns to over 200 ns—is also reported, suggesting a variety of other possible defect structures present. The flexibility to generate high fidelity single‐photon emission, over a wide range of lifetimes in a single material system, has potential in many optical quantum computing applications from high‐bit‐rate single‐photon sources to quantum memory devices.
Monolayer hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) has been widely considered a fundamental building block for 2D heterostructures and devices. However, the controlled and scalable synthesis of hBN and its 2D heterostructures has remained a daunting challenge. Here, an hBN/graphene (hBN/G) interface‐mediated growth process for the controlled synthesis of high‐quality monolayer hBN is proposed and further demonstrated. It is discovered that the in‐plane hBN/G interface can be precisely controlled, enabling the scalable epitaxy of unidirectional monolayer hBN on graphene, which exhibits a uniform moiré superlattice consistent with single‐domain hBN, aligned to the underlying graphene lattice. Furthermore, it is identified that the deep‐ultraviolet emission at 6.12 eV stems from the 1s‐exciton state of monolayer hBN with a giant renormalized direct bandgap on graphene. This work provides a viable path for the controlled synthesis of ultraclean, wafer‐scale, atomically ordered 2D quantum materials, as well as the fabrication of 2D quantum electronic and optoelectronic devices.
more » « less- Award ID(s):
- 1936219
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10369324
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Advanced Materials
- Volume:
- 34
- Issue:
- 21
- ISSN:
- 0935-9648
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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