US-12624994-B2 - Creation of optically stable quantum emitters

Abstract

A method and devices for fabricating optical emitters. The method includes disposing a flake of a multi-layer material onto a wafer. The wafer has an aperture over which a portion of the flake is disposed. The flake has a first surface partially in contact with the wafer, and a second surface opposite the first surface. The method further includes disposing a deceleration mask layer adjacent the flake. The deceleration mask layer has a flake-side surface adjacent to the flake, and an exposed surface opposite the flake-side surface. An ion beam is directed at the exposed surface of the deceleration mask layer to decelerate ions of the ion beam until at least a portion of the ions are implanted in the flake.

Inventors

• Muchuan Hua
• Wei-Ying Chen
• Hanyu Hou
• Thomas Gage
• Benjamin DIROLL
• Haihua Liu
• Jianguo Wen
• Jian-Min Zuo

Assignees

• UCHICAGO ARGONNE, LLC

Dates

Publication Date

20260512

Application Date

20240503

Claims (19)

1. 1 . A method for fabricating optical emitters, the method comprising: disposing, onto a wafer, a flake of a multi-layer material, the wafer having an aperture over which a portion of the flake is disposed, the flake having a first surface partially in contact with the wafer, and a second surface, opposite the first surface; disposing a deceleration mask layer adjacent the flake, the deceleration mask layer having a flake-side surface adjacent to the flake and an exposed surface opposite the flake-side surface; and directing an ion beam at the exposed surface of the deceleration mask layer to decelerate ions of the ion beam until at least a portion of the ions are implanted in the flake.
2. 2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the multi-layer material comprises a material having between 3 and 300 layers.
3. 3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the multi-layer material comprises hexagonal boron nitride.
4. 4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the ions comprise carbon ions.
5. 5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the deceleration mask layer comprises a carbon film.
6. 6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the flake has a thickness between the first surface and second surface of 100 nm or less.
7. 7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the deceleration mask layer has a thickness between the flake-side and exposed surfaces of 50 nm, 100 nm, or less than 100 nm.
8. 8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising monitoring a temperature of the multi-layer material flake.
9. 9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein disposing the deceleration mask adjacent to the flake comprises disposing the deceleration mask on a copper spacer, the deceleration mask disposed at a distance away from the second surface of the flake.
10. 10 . A single-photon emission device fabricated according to the method of claim 1 , the device comprising: a multi-layer material flake having (i) a first surface, (ii) a second surface opposite the first surface, (iii) a thickness defined by the orthogonal distance between the first and second surfaces, and (iv) implanted ions within 100 nm of the second surface.
11. 11 . The device of claim 10 , wherein the multi-layer material comprises hexagonal boron nitride.
12. 12 . The device of claim 10 , wherein the implanted ions comprise carbon ions.
13. 13 . The device of claim 10 , wherein the peak wavelength of the emitters in a typical single-photon emission device have a standard deviation of 2.7 nm or less at room temperature.
14. 14 . The device of claim 10 , wherein the photon emission device emits photons having an emission bandwidths of less than 16 nm at room temperature.
15. 15 . The device of claim 10 , wherein the photon emission device has a maximum emission intensity of greater than 1 MHz.
16. 16 . The device of claim 10 , wherein the thickness of the multi-layer material flake is between 1 and 10 nm, or less than 100 nm.
17. 17 . A system for generating single-photons, the system comprising: a single-photon emission device fabricated according to the method of claim 1 ; an excitation radiation source configured to provide excitation radiation to the single-photon emission device; lensing optics configured to focus the excitation radiation into the single-photon emission device; and collection optics configured to receive single-photons emitted from the single-photon emission device.
18. 18 . The system of claim 17 , wherein the single-photon emission device comprises hexagonal boron nitride implanted with carbon ions.
19. 19 . The system of claim 17 , further comprising a dichroic mirror configured to (i) reflect the excitation radiation into the lensing optics, and (ii) transmit the single-photons emitted from the single-photon emission device.

Description

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT This invention was made with government support under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357 awarded by the United States Department of Energy to UChicago Argonne, LLC, operator of Argonne National Laboratory. The government has certain rights in the invention. FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE The present disclosure relates to methods and systems for generating single-photon sources, and specifically, to fabricating single-photon emitters using multi-layer materials. BACKGROUND Quantum information technology is a rapidly advancing field with applications across industries such as quantum physics, computer science, information theory, and defense technologies among others. Quantum information technologies, also referred to as quantum information sciences, harness the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics to manipulate, transmit, and process information in ways beyond the capabilities of classical computing and classical communications technologies. Photon-based quantum information processing is a prominent approach within the broader field of quantum information technology, where individual photons are used as qubits, the fundamental unit of quantum information. Photon-based systems are typically used for investigating, and fabricating, quantum information technologies as they allow for transmission of information over long distances either through free-space or optical fibers. Sources for generating individual photons in a controllable and reliable way are required for many photon-based quantum information systems, and as such, these single-photon sources are in demand across many industries and institutions. One approach for generating single-photons utilizes single-photon emitters (SPEs). SPEs span a wide variety of types and form factors including quantum dots and molecules, and weak lasers, which operate differently and provide photons with varied properties. For example, some SPEs generate single-photons non-deterministically (i.e., not on demand), and therefore are not efficient or useful for some applications. Additionally, each single-photon source is governed by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle which dictates that the generation of an exact number of photons with a given frequency is forbidden. This restricts each single-photon source to limited frequencies and bandwidths of generated photons. Some SPEs rely on impurities in generating single-photons, which can cause broadened emission bandwidths, non-deterministic emission, reduced coherence, and short performance stability timespans. Further, common SPEs, and specifically SPEs that rely on doping and defects, can cause further structural incongruities in substrates and semiconductor materials during fabrication, which can lead to reduced output emission intensities, reduced device lifetimes, and potential device failure. Additionally, many SPEs require stringent temperature monitoring and control to prevent additional excitations and other physical effects from further degrading device performance. Due to the drawbacks of current single-photon sources, the use of SPEs is limited to specific environments and implementations. Considering the broad range of uses of SPE technologies, there is need for SPE devices that are more stable, provide greater output intensities, operate at room temperature, and can be deterministic in nature for improving and expanding the use of such devices and furthering the implementation of quantum information technologies. SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE In an embodiment, disclosed is a method for fabricating optical emitters. The method includes disposing, onto a wafer, a flake of a multi-layer material, the wafer having an aperture over which a portion of the flake is disposed. The flake has a first surface partially in contact with the wafer, and a second surface, opposite the first surface. The method further includes disposing a deceleration mask layer adjacent to the flake. The deceleration mask layer has a flake-side surface adjacent to the flake and an exposed surface opposite the flake-side surface. An ion beam source directs an ion beam at the exposed surface of the deceleration mask layer to decelerate ions of the ion beam, maximizing the stopping efficiency of the flake, in another word, increasing or maximizing the ion implantation efficiency. In variations of the current embodiment, wherein the multi-layer material comprises a material having from 4 and 300 layers, or up to as many as layers as desired. The multi-layer material may have a thickness between the first surface and the second surface of 1 nm or greater, 1.3 nm or greater, or as thick as required or desired. In specific examples, the multi-layer material comprises hexagonal boron nitride. In continued variations of the current embodiment, the ions comprise carbon ions. In more variations of the current embodiment, the deceleration mask layer comprises a carbon film, and/or the deceleration mask