Correlative Nanoscale Imaging of Strained hBN Spin Defects

David Curie; Jaron T Krogel; Lukas Cavar; Abhishek Solanki; Pramey Upadhyaya; Tongcang Li; Yun-Yi Pai; Michael Chilcote; Vasudevan Iyer; Alexander Puretzky; Ilia Ivanov; Mao-Hua Du; Fernando Reboredo; Benjamin Lawrie

doi:10.1021/acsami.2c11886

Correlative Nanoscale Imaging of Strained hBN Spin Defects

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2022 Sep 14;14(36):41361-41368. doi: 10.1021/acsami.2c11886. Epub 2022 Sep 1.

Authors

David Curie¹, Jaron T Krogel², Lukas Cavar³, Abhishek Solanki⁴, Pramey Upadhyaya⁴, Tongcang Li^{4

5}, Yun-Yi Pai^{2

6}, Michael Chilcote^{2

6}, Vasudevan Iyer⁷, Alexander Puretzky⁷, Ilia Ivanov⁷, Mao-Hua Du², Fernando Reboredo², Benjamin Lawrie^{2

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235, United States.
² Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, United States.
³ Department of Physics, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, United States.
⁴ Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, United States.
⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, United States.
⁶ Quantum Science Center, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, United States.
⁷ Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, United States.

PMID: 36048915
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.2c11886

Abstract

Spin defects like the negatively charged boron vacancy color center (V_B^-) in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) may enable new forms of quantum sensing with near-surface defects in layered van der Waals heterostructures. Here, the effect of strain on V_B^- color centers in hBN is revealed with correlative cathodoluminescence and photoluminescence microscopies. Strong localized enhancement and redshifting of the V_B^- luminescence is observed at creases, consistent with density functional theory calculations showing V_B^- migration toward regions with moderate uniaxial compressive strain. The ability to manipulate spin defects with highly localized strain is critical to the development of practical 2D quantum devices and quantum sensors.

Keywords: cathodoluminescence; hBN; nanophotonics; quantum sensors; spin defects.