Deterministic quantum emitter formation in hexagonal boron nitride via controlled edge creation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10879445-B2
Application number	US-202016788685-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 12, 2020
Priority date	Feb 12, 2019
Publication date	Dec 29, 2020
Grant date	Dec 29, 2020

Abstract

A quantum emitter device is composed of a hole milled in a layer of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) on a substrate made of silicon dioxide. The hole preferably has a side wall angle 1.1°±0.28° from the horizontal, has an oval shape with minor axis 516 nm±20 nm and major axis 600 nm±20 nm, and/or has a depth 4 nm±1 nm. The hBN layer preferably has a total thickness of 5-10 nm. The holes may be fabricated using a gallium focused ion beam, a helium focused ion beam, electron beam directed etching, or photolithography and reactive ion etch (RIE) with sidewall tapering.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A quantum emitter device comprising: a substrate made of silicon dioxide; a layer of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) on the substrate; and a hole milled in the layer of hBN.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the hole milled in the layer of hBN has a side wall angle 1.1°±0.28° from the horizontal.

3. The device of claim 1 , wherein the hole milled in the layer of hBN has an oval shape with minor axis 516 nm±20 nm, major axis 600 nm±20 nm.

4. The device of claim 1 , wherein the hole milled in the layer of hBN has a depth 4 nm±1 nm.

5. The device of claim 1 , wherein the hBN layer has a total thickness of 5-10 nm.

6. The device of claim 1 , comprising multiple holes milled in the layer of hBN.

7. The device of claim 1 , comprising multiple holes milled in the layer of hBN with a density of 1 hole per 1 μm 2 .

8. A method of fabricating solid-state quantum emitters in 2D hexagonal boron nitride comprising providing a layer of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) on a substrate made of silicon dioxide, and fabricating holes in the layer of hBN.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein fabricating the holes uses a gallium focused ion beam with ion dose of 10 pC/μm 2 , and beam energy of 20 keV.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein fabricating the holes uses a helium focused ion beam, preferably about 100 pC/μm 2 dose at an energy of 25 keV.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein fabricating the holes uses electron beam directed etching at 25 and 15 keV and at a dose of ˜1 μC/μm 2 , performed in H2O vapor.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein fabricating the holes uses photolithography and reactive ion etch (RIE) with sidewall tapering.

13. The method of claim 8 , wherein fabricating the holes uses photolithography to define array of holes with ˜500 nm diameter in photoresist, performing reactive ion etching with Ar or XeF 2 ions.

Assignees

• Univ Oregon

Inventors

• Alemán Benjamín J
• Ziegler Joshua E

Classifications

• H10H20/822

  Materials of the light-emitting regions · CPC title

• H10H20/812

  within the light-emitting regions, e.g. having quantum confinement structures · CPC title

• H10H20/825 Primary

  containing nitrogen, e.g. GaN · CPC title

• B82Y20/00

  Nanooptics, e.g. quantum optics or photonic crystals · CPC title

• H04B10/291

  in which processing or amplification is carried out without conversion of the main signal from optical form · CPC title