A substitutional quantum defect in WS2 discovered by high-throughput computational screening and fabricated by site-selective STM manipulation
John C. Thomas, Wei Chen, Yihuang Xiong, Bradford A. Barker, Junze Zhou, Weiru Chen, Antonio Rossi, Nolan Kelly, Zhuohang Yu, Da Zhou, Shalini Kumari, Edward S. Barnard, Joshua A. Robinson, Mauricio Terrones, Adam Schwartzberg, D. Frank Ogletree, Eli Rotenberg, Marcus M. Noack, Sinéad M. Griffin, Archana Raja, David A. Strubbe, Gian‐Marco Rignanese, Alexander Weber‐Bargioni, Geoffroy Hautier
Abstract
Abstract Point defects in two-dimensional materials are of key interest for quantum information science. However, the parameter space of possible defects is immense, making the identification of high-performance quantum defects very challenging. Here, we perform high-throughput (HT) first-principles computational screening to search for promising quantum defects within WS 2 , which present localized levels in the band gap that can lead to bright optical transitions in the visible or telecom regime. Our computed database spans more than 700 charged defects formed through substitution on the tungsten or sulfur site. We found that sulfur substitutions enable the most promising quantum defects. We computationally identify the neutral cobalt substitution to sulfur ( $${\rm{Co}}_{{{{{{{{\rm{S}}}}}}}}}^{0}$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>Co</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>S</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> </mml:math> ) and fabricate it with scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). The $${\rm{Co}}_{{{{{{{{\rm{S}}}}}}}}}^{0}$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>Co</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>S</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> </mml:math> electronic structure measured by STM agrees with first principles and showcases an attractive quantum defect. Our work shows how HT computational screening and nanoscale synthesis routes can be combined to design promising quantum defects.