Article Current-induced brightening of vacancy-related emitters in hexagonal boron nitride

Corinne Steiner ; Rebecca Rahmel ; Frank Volmer ; Rika Windisch ; Lars H. Janssen ; Patricia Pesch ; Kenji Watanabe SAMURAI ORCID (National Institute for Materials Science) ; Takashi Taniguchi SAMURAI ORCID (National Institute for Materials Science) ; Florian Libisch ; Bernd Beschoten ; Christoph Stampfer ; Annika Kurzmann

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Corinne Steiner, Rebecca Rahmel, Frank Volmer, Rika Windisch, Lars H. Janssen, Patricia Pesch, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Florian Libisch, Bernd Beschoten, Christoph Stampfer, Annika Kurzmann. Current-induced brightening of vacancy-related emitters in hexagonal boron nitride. Physical Review Research. 2025, 7 (3), L032037. https://doi.org/10.1103/cd62-5hq8

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(abstract)

We perform photoluminescence measurements on vacancy-related emitters in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) that are notorious for their low quantum yields. The gating of these emitters via few-layer graphene electrodes reveals a reproducible, gate-dependent brightening of the emitter, which coincides with a change in the direction of the simultaneously measured leakage current across the hBN layers. At the same time, we observe that the relative increase of the brightening effect scales with the intensity of the excitation laser. Both observations can be explained in terms of a photo-assisted electroluminescence effect. Interestingly, emitters can also show the opposite behavior, i.e. a decrease in emitter intensity that depends on the gate leakage current. We explain these two completely different behaviors with different concentrations of donor and acceptor states in the hBN and show that precise control of the doping of hBN is necessary to gain control over the brightness of dark emitters by electrical means. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of vacancy-related defects that is necessary to make use of their potential for quantum information processing.

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Keyword: hexagonal boron nitride, vacancy-related emitters
, photoluminescence


Date published: 2025-08-19

Publisher: American Physical Society (APS)

Journal:

  • Physical Review Research (ISSN: 26431564) vol. 7 issue. 3 L032037

Funding:

  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft EXC 2004/1 - 390534769
  • Japan Society for the Promotion of Science 21H05233
  • Japan Society for the Promotion of Science 23H02052
  • Austrian Science Fund 10.55776/DOC142
  • Austrian Science Fund 10.55776/COE5

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

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First published URL: https://doi.org/10.1103/cd62-5hq8

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Updated at: 2026-02-16 16:31:11 +0900

Published on MDR: 2026-02-16 13:57:33 +0900

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