| Title: |
Temporal Coherence of Single Photons Emitted by Hexagonal Boron Nitride Defects at Room Temperature |
| Authors: |
Vidal Martínez Pons, Juan Vicente; Kyu Kim, Sang; Behrens, Max; Izquierdo-Molina, Alejandro; Menéndez Rua, Adolfo; Paçal, Serkan; Ateş, Serkan; Viña Liste, Luis M.; Antón Solanas, Carlos |
| Contributors: |
Departamento de Física de Materiales; Facultad de Ciencias; Gobierno de España; European Commission |
| Publisher Information: |
American Chemical Society |
| Publication Year: |
2026 |
| Collection: |
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM): Biblos-e Archivo |
| Subject Terms: |
hBN defects; single-photon emitters; quantum optics; temporal coherence; phonon dephasing; michelson interferometry; Física |
| Description: |
Color centers in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) emerge as promising quantum light sources at room temperature, with potential applications in quantum communications, among others. The temporal coherence of emitted photons (i.e., their capacity to interfere and distribute photonic entanglement) is essential for many of these applications. Hence, it is crucial to study and determine the temporal coherence of this emission under different experimental conditions. In this work, we report the coherence time of the single photons emitted by an hBN defect in a nanocrystal at room temperature, measured via Michelson interferometry. The visibility of this interference vanishes when the temporal delay between the interferometer arms is a few hundred femtoseconds, highlighting that the phonon dephasing processes are 4 orders of magnitude faster than the spontaneous decay time of the emitter. We also analyze the single photon characteristics of the emission via correlation measurements, defect blinking dynamics, and its Debye–Waller factor. Our room temperature results highlight the presence of a strong electron–phonon coupling, suggesting the need to work at cryogenic temperatures to enable quantum photonic applications based on photon interference ; We acknowledge the support from the projects from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación PID2023-148061NB-I00 and PCI2024-153425, the project ULTRABRIGHT from the Fundación Ramón Areces and the Grant “Leonardo for researchers in Physics 2023” from Fundación BBVA. This project funded within the QuantERA II Programme that has received funding from the EU H2020 research and innovation programme under GA No 101017733. S.A. acknowledges the support from the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBI ́TAK) under GA Nos. 118F119. CA-S acknowledges the support from the Comunidad de Madrid fund “Atracción de Talento, Mod. 1”, ref 2020-T1/ IND-19785. We acknowledge Attocube for the support with the room-temperature nanopositioning system of the sample. |
| Document Type: |
article in journal/newspaper |
| File Description: |
application/pdf |
| Language: |
English |
| Relation: |
ACS Photonics; https://doi.org/10.1021/acsphotonics.5c02227; Gobierno de España. PID2023-148061NB-I00; info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/101017733/EU//QuantERA II; Gobierno de España. PCI2024-153425; https://doi.org/10.21950/OSZVZO; ACS Photonics 13.1 (2026): 282−289; https://hdl.handle.net/10486/734060; 282; 289; 13 |
| DOI: |
10.1021/acsphotonics.5c02227 |
| Availability: |
https://hdl.handle.net/10486/734060; https://doi.org/10.1021/acsphotonics.5c02227 |
| Rights: |
© 2025 The Authors ; Attribution 4.0 International ; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ; open access |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.82E4A548 |
| Database: |
BASE |