Photostable fluorescent molecules on layered hexagonal boron nitride: Ideal single-photon sources at room temperature
Shuangping Han, Chengbing Qin, Yunrui Song, Shuai Dong, Yu Lei, Shen Wang, Xingliang Su, Aoni Wei, Xiangdong Li, Guofeng Zhang, Ruiyun Chen, Jianyong Hu, Liantuan Xiao, Suotang Jia
Abstract
Photoblinking and photobleaching are commonly encountered problems for single-photon sources. Numerous methods have been devised to suppress these two impediments; however, either the preparation procedures or the operating conditions are relatively harsh, making them difficult to apply to practical applications. Here, we reported giant suppression of both photoblinking and photobleaching of a single fluorescent molecule, terrylene, via the utilization of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) flakes as substrates. Experimentally, a much-prolonged survival time of terrylene has been determined, which can have a photostable emission over 2 h at room temperature under ambient atmospheres. Compared with single molecules on a SiO2/Si substrate or glass coverslip, a more than 100-fold increase in the total number of photons collected from each terrylene on h-BN flakes has been demonstrated. We also proved that the photostability of terrylene molecules can be well maintained for more than 6 months even under ambient conditions without any further protection. Our results demonstrate that the utilization of h-BN flakes to suppress photoblinking and photobleaching of fluorescent molecules has promising applications in the production of high-quality single-photon sources at room temperature.