Journal article

Optimisation of electron irradiation for creating spin ensembles in hexagonal boron nitride

AJ Healey, P Singh, IO Robertson, C Gavin, SC Scholten, DA Broadway, P Reineck, H Abe, T Ohshima, M Kianinia, I Aharonovich, JP Tetienne

Materials for Quantum Technology | IOP Publishing Ltd | Published : 2024

Abstract

Boron vacancy centre ( V B − ) ensembles in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) have attracted recent interest for their potential as two-dimensional solid-state quantum sensors. Irradiation is necessary for V B − creation, however, to date only limited attention has been given to optimising the defect production process, especially in the case of bulk irradiation with high-energy particles, which offers scalability through the potential for creating ensembles in large volumes of material. Here we systematically investigate the effect of electron irradiation by varying the dose delivered to a range of hBN samples, which differ in their purity, and search for an optimum in measurement sensitivity. ..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by RMIT University


Funding Acknowledgements

The authors thank Brett Johnson for fruitful discussions. This work was supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) through Grants CE200100010, FT200100073, FT220100053, DE200100279, DP220100178, DP220102518, and DE230100192, and by the Office of Naval Research Global (N62909-22-1-2028). P R acknowledges support through an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellowship (Grant No. DE200100279) and an RMIT University Vice-Chancellor's Senior Research Fellowship. I O R is supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. S C S gratefully acknowledges the support of an Ernst and Grace Matthaei scholarship. Part of this study was supported by QST President's Strategic Grant 'QST International Research Initiative'.