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Optically active defects in wide bandgap materials play a central role in several emerging applications in quantum information and sensing, as they allow for manipulating and harvesting the internal electronic degrees of freedom with optical means. Interactions among defects and with the surrounding environment represent crucial features for sensing but can severely hamper the coherence of the quantum states and prevent an efficient integration with photonic architectures due to unpredictable spectral instability. Understanding and controlling defective interactions would mitigate the effects of spectral instabilities and enable quantum applications based on long-range interactions. Here, we investigate the photoluminescence spectral dynamics of quantum emitters in defective hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), a material whose emission spectrum notoriously displays spectral wandering and diffusion, and we identify several optical transitions with discrete energy jumps. By analyzing the spectral dynamics of defective hBN, we can associate the spectral jumps with the interplay amid competing recombination pathways available to the defect states in a process like donor-acceptor-pairs (DAP). The discrete spectral jumps observed in the emission spectrum of hBN arise from interactions between the harmonic states of nitrogen π orbitals of delocalized defects, and their energy can be ascribed to a DAP-like transition sequence. Our results allow mapping of the defect geometry in a hBN lattice, setting a basis for controlling and mitigating the spectral jumping in this platform, and paving the way toward using long-range interactions of defect ensembles for quantum technology.

Rights:

• Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 International
  

Keyword: quantum emitters
, hexagonal boron nitride (hBN)
, recombination pathways

Date published: 2025-01-30

Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)

Journal:

• The Journal of Physical Chemistry C (ISSN: 19327447) vol. 129 issue. 4 p. 2044-2053

Funding:

• Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
• Basic Energy Sciences DE-SC0012704
• Ministerstvo ?kolstv?, Ml?de?e a Telov?chovy CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15_003/0000444
• Ministerstvo ?kolstv?, Ml?de?e a Telov?chovy LL2101
• Laboratory Directed Research and Development 25-022
• Professional Staff Congress and City University of New York PSC-CUNY 64510-00 53
• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science 21H05233
• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science 23H02052
• City University of New York
• Division of Materials Research DMR-2044281

Manuscript type: Publisher's version (Version of record)

MDR DOI:

First published URL: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.4c07147

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Updated at: 2026-02-17 08:30:34 +0900

Published on MDR: 2026-02-16 18:00:52 +0900