Plasmon Enhanced Quantum Properties of Single Photon Emitters with Hybrid Hexagonal Boron Nitride Silver Nanocube Systems

摘要

Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) has emerged as a promising ultrathin host ofsingle photon emitters (SPEs) with favorable quantum properties at roomtemperature, making it a highly desirable element for integrated quantumphotonic networks. One major challenge of using these SPEs in suchapplications is their low quantum efficiency. Recent studies have reported animprovement in quantum efficiency by up to two orders of magnitude whenintegrating an ensemble of emitters such as boron vacancy defects inmultilayered hBN flakes embedded within metallic nanocavities. However,these experiments have not been extended to SPEs and are mainly focused onmultiphoton effects. Here, the quantum single-photon properties of hybridnanophotonic structures composed of SPEs created in ultrathin hBN flakescoupled with plasmonic silver nanocubes (SNCs) are studied. The authorsdemonstrate 200 plasmonic enhancement of the SPE properties,manifested by a strong increase in the SPE fluorescence. Such enhancementis explained by rigorous numerical simulations where the hBN flake is indirect contact with the SNCs that cause the plasmonic effects. The presentedstrong and fast single photon emission obtained at room temperature with acompact hybrid nanophotonic platform can be very useful to variousemerging applications in quantum optical communications and computing.