Purcell-Induced Bright Single Photon Emitters in Hexagonal Boron Nitride
Mashnoon Alam Sakib, Brandon M. Triplett, W. C. Harris, Naveed Hussain, Alexander Senichev, Melika Momenzadeh, Joshua Bocanegra, Polina P. Vabishchevich, Ruqian Wu, Alexandra Boltasseva, Vladimir M. Shalaev, Maxim R. Shcherbakov
Abstract
Single photon emitters (SPEs) in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) are elementary building blocks for room-temperature on-chip quantum photonic technologies. However, fundamental challenges, such as slow radiative decay and nondeterministic placement of the emitters, limit their full potential. Here, we demonstrate large-area arrays of plasmonic nanoresonators (PNRs) for Purcell-induced room-temperature SPEs by engineering emitter-cavity coupling and enhancing radiative emission. Gold-coated silicon pillars with an alumina spacer enable a 10-fold local-field enhancement in the emission band of native hBN defects. We observe bright SPEs with an average saturated emission rate surpassing 5 million counts per second, an average lifetime of <0.5 ns, and 29% yield. Density functional theory reveals the beneficial role of an alumina spacer between hBN and gold, mitigating the electronic broadening of emission from defects proximal to the metal. Our results offer arrays of bright, heterogeneously integrated single-photon sources, paving the way for robust and scalable quantum information systems.