New research shines light on the properties and promise of hexagonal boron nitride, a material used in electronic and photonics technologies
EW YORK — Single-photon emitters (SPEs) are akin to microscopic lightbulbs that emit only one photon (a quantum of light) at a time. These tiny structures hold immense importance for the development of quantum technology, particularly in applications such as secure communications and high-resolution imaging. However, many materials that contain SPEs are impractical for use in mass manufacturing due to their high cost and the difficulty of integrating them into complex devices.
In 2015, scientists discovered SPEs within a material called hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). Since then, hBN has gained widespread attention and application across various quantum fields and technologies, including sensors, imaging, cryptography, and computing, thanks to its layered structure and ease of manipulation.
The emergence of SPEs within hBN stems from imperfections in the material’s crystal structure, but the precise mechanisms governing their development and function have remained elusive. Now, a new study published in Nature Materials reveals significant insights into the properties of hBN, offering a solution to discrepancies in previous research on the proposed origins of SPEs within the material. The study involves a collaborative effort spanning three major institutions: the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC); the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) user facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory; and the National Institute for Materials Science. Gabriele Grosso, a professor with the CUNY ASRC’s Photonics Initiative and the CUNY Graduate Center’s Physics program, and Jonathan Pelliciari, a beamline scientist at NSLS-II, led the study.
The collaboration was sparked by a conversation at the annual NSLS-II and Center for Functional Nanomaterials Users’ Meeting when researchers from CUNY ASRC and NSLS-II realized how their unique expertise, skills, and resources could uncover some novel insights, sparking the idea for the hBN experiment. The work brought together physicists with diverse areas of expertise and instrumentation skillsets who rarely collaborate in such a close manner.
Using advanced techniques based on X-ray scattering and optical spectroscopy, the research team uncovered a fundamental energy excitation occurring at 285 millielectron volts. This excitation triggers the generation of harmonic electronic states that give rise to single photons — similar to how musical harmonics produce notes across multiple octaves.
Read more on BNL website
Image: NSLS-II scientists Jiemin Li, Valentina Bisogni, Shiyu Fan, and Jonathan Pelliciari at the SIX beamline
Credit: Kevin Coughlin/Brookhaven National Laboratory