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1. Photophysics of Intrinsic Single‐Photon Emitters in Silicon Nitride at Low Temperatures

   https://doi.org/10.1002/qute.202300099  

   Martin, Zachariah_O; Senichev, Alexander; Peana, Samuel; Lawrie, Benjamin_J; Lagutchev, Alexei_S; Boltasseva, Alexandra; Shalaev, Vladimir_M (August 2023, Advanced Quantum Technologies)

   Abstract A robust process for fabricating intrinsic single‐photon emitters in silicon nitride is recently established. These emitters show promise for quantum applications due to room‐temperature operation and monolithic integration with technologically mature silicon nitride photonics platforms. Here, the fundamental photophysical properties of these emitters are probed through measurements of optical transition wavelengths, linewidths, and photon antibunching as a function of temperature from 4.2 to 300 K. Important insight into the potential for lifetime‐limited linewidths is provided through measurements of inhomogeneous and temperature‐dependent broadening of the zero‐phonon lines. At 4.2 K, spectral diffusion is found to be the main broadening mechanism, while spectroscopy time series reveal zero‐phonon lines with instrument‐limited linewidths. 

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2. Room-temperature single photon emitters in cubic boron nitride nanocrystals

   https://doi.org/10.1364/OME.386791  

   López-Morales, Gabriel_I; Almanakly, Aziza; Satapathy, Sitakanta; Proscia, Nicholas_V; Jayakumar, Harishankar; Khabashesku, Valery_N; Ajayan, Pulickel_M; Meriles, Carlos_A; Menon, Vinod_M (March 2020, Optical Materials Express)

   Color centers in wide bandgap semiconductors are attracting broad attention for use as platforms for quantum technologies relying on room-temperature single-photon emission (SPE), and for nanoscale metrology applications building on the centers’ response to electric and magnetic fields. Here, we demonstrate room-temperature SPE from defects in cubic boron nitride (cBN) nanocrystals, which we unambiguously assign to the cubic phase using spectrally resolved Raman imaging. These isolated spots show photoluminescence (PL) spectra with zero-phonon lines (ZPLs) within the visible region (496–700 nm) when subject to sub-bandgap laser excitation. Second-order autocorrelation of the emitted photons reveals antibunching withg²(0) ∼ 0.2, and a decay constant of 2.75 ns that is further confirmed through fluorescence lifetime measurements. The results presented herein prove the existence of optically addressable isolated quantum emitters originating from defects in cBN, making this material an interesting platform for opto-electronic devices and quantum applications. 

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3. Evidence of photochromism in a hexagonal boron nitride single-photon emitter

   https://doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.406184  

   Feldman, Matthew_A; Marvinney, Claire_E; Puretzky, Alexander_A; Lawrie, Benjamin_J (December 2020, Optica)

   Solid-state single-photon emitters (SPEs) such as the bright, stable, room-temperature defects within hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) are of increasing interest for quantum information science. To date, the atomic and electronic origins of SPEs within hBN have not been well understood, and no studies have reported photochromism or explored cross correlations between hBN SPEs. Here, we combine irradiation time-dependent microphotoluminescence spectroscopy with two-color Hanbury Brown–Twiss interferometry in an investigation of the electronic structure of hBN defects. We identify evidence of photochromism in an hBN SPE that exhibits single-photon cross correlations and correlated changes in the intensity of its two zero-phonon lines. 

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4. Single-Photon Emitters in SiN Integrated Quantum Photonics

   https://doi.org/10.1364/QUANTUM.2022.QW4B.5  

   Senichev, Alexander; Peana, Samuel; Martin, Zachariah O.; Yesilyurt, Omer; Sychev, Demid; Lagutchev, Alexei S.; Boltasseva, Alexandra; Shalaev, Vladimir M. (January 2022, Quantum 2.0 Conference 2022 Optica Publishing Group 2022)

   We report on the generation of single-photon emitters in silicon nitride. We demonstrate monolithic integration of these quantum emitters with silicon nitride waveguides showing a room-temperature off-chip count-rate of ~10⁴counts/s and clear antibunching behavior. 

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5. Room-temperature single-photon emitters in silicon nitride

   https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abj0627  

   Senichev, Alexander; Martin, Zachariah O.; Peana, Samuel; Sychev, Demid; Xu, Xiaohui; Lagutchev, Alexei S.; Boltasseva, Alexandra; Shalaev, Vladimir M. (December 2021, Science Advances)

   Single-photon emitters are essential in enabling several emerging applications in quantum information technology, quantum sensing, and quantum communication. Scalable photonic platforms capable of hosting intrinsic or embedded sources of single-photon emission are of particular interest for the realization of integrated quantum photonic circuits. Here, we report on the observation of room-temperature single-photon emitters in silicon nitride (SiN) films grown on silicon dioxide substrates. Photophysical analysis reveals bright (>10 5 counts/s), stable, linearly polarized, and pure quantum emitters in SiN films with a second-order autocorrelation function value at zero time delay g (2) (0) below 0.2 at room temperature. We suggest that the emission originates from a specific defect center in SiN because of the narrow wavelength distribution of the observed luminescence peak. Single-photon emitters in SiN have the potential to enable direct, scalable, and low-loss integration of quantum light sources with a well-established photonic on-chip platform. 

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