Spin defects in hexagonal boron nitride for strain sensing on nanopillar arrays

Tieshan Yang; Noah Mendelson; Chi Li; Andreas Gottscholl; John Scott; Mehran Kianinia; Vladimir Dyakonov; Milos Toth; Igor Aharonovich

doi:10.1039/d1nr07919k

Spin defects in hexagonal boron nitride for strain sensing on nanopillar arrays

Nanoscale. 2022 Mar 31;14(13):5239-5244. doi: 10.1039/d1nr07919k.

Authors

Tieshan Yang^{1

2}, Noah Mendelson¹, Chi Li¹, Andreas Gottscholl³, John Scott^{1

2}, Mehran Kianinia¹, Vladimir Dyakonov³, Milos Toth^{1

2}, Igor Aharonovich^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, New South Wales 2007, Australia. mehran.kianinia@uts.edu.au.
² ARC Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS), University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, New South Wales 2007, Australia.
³ Experimental Physics 6 and Würzburg-Dresden Cluster of Excellence, Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.

PMID: 35315850
DOI: 10.1039/d1nr07919k

Abstract

Two-dimensional hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) has attracted much attention as a platform for studies of light-matter interactions at the nanoscale, especially in quantum nanophotonics. Recent efforts have focused on spin defects, specifically negatively charged boron vacancy (V_B^-) centers. Here, we demonstrate a scalable method to enhance the V_B^- emission using an array of SiO₂ nanopillars. We achieve a 4-fold increase in photoluminescence (PL) intensity, and a corresponding 4-fold enhancement in optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) contrast. Furthermore, the V_B^- ensembles provide useful information about the strain fields associated with the strained hBN at the nanopillar sites. Our results provide an accessible way to increase the emission intensity as well as the ODMR contrast of the V_B^- defects, while simultaneously form a basis for miniaturized quantum sensors in layered heterostructures.