Generation of luminescent defects in hBN by focused helium ion beam irradiation

Description

Among the luminescent centres in hBN, which have recently gained attention because of their brightness and exceptional quantum properties at room temperature, the charged boron vacancy (VB-) defect stands out for its magnetic properties, which have significant applications in quantum sensing schemes [1]. In the present work [2] we irradiate hBN flakes with a focused helium ion beam to generate VB- defects, conduct optical and magnetically resolved characterization, and apply a theoretical model [3] to infer the generated density of charged emitters. These results are further compared to the estimated vacancy density from Molecular Dynamics simulations. Our work provides a systematic study of the defect generation efficiency by comparing different irradiation doses.
[1] Gottscholl, A. et al., Nat. Mater. 19, 540-545 (2020), [2] Carbone, A. et al., in preparation, [3] Udvarhelyi, P. et al., npj Comp. Mat. 9, 150 (2023).

Period	21 Mar 2025
Event title	DPG-Frühjahrstagung (DPG Spring Meeting) 2025: DPG Spring Meeting of the Condensed Matter Section (SKM)
Event type	Conference
Location	Regensburg, Germany, BavariaShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International