Room temperature single photon source using fiber-integrated hexagonal boron nitride

Abstract

Single photons are a key resource for quantum optics and optical quantum information processing. The integration of scalable room temperature quantum emitters into photonic circuits remains to be a technical challenge. Here we utilize a defect center in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) attached by Van der Waals force onto a multimode fiber as a single photon source. We perform an optical characterization of the source in terms of spectrum, state lifetime, power saturation and photostability. A special feature of our source is that it allows for easy switching between fiber-coupled and free space single photon generation modes. In order to prove the quantum nature of the emission we measure the second-order correlation function g(2)(τ). For both fiber-coupled and free space emission, the g(2) (τ) dips below 0.5 indicating operation in the single photon regime. The results so far demonstrate the feasibility of 2D material single photon sources for scalable photonic quantum information processing.