Photoluminescence imaging of single photon emitters within nanoscale strain profiles in monolayer WSe$_2

• Main Authors: Abramov, Artem N, Chestnov, Igor Y, Alimova, Ekaterina S, Ivanova, Tatiana, Mukhin, Ivan S, Krizhanovskii, Dmitry N, Shelykh, Ivan A, Iorsh, Ivan V, Kravtsov, Vasily
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 23.01.2023
• Subjects: Physics - Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics; Physics - Quantum Physics
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2301.09478

Local deformation of atomically thin van der Waals materials provides a powerful approach to create site-controlled chip-compatible single-photon emitters (SPEs). However, the microscopic mechanisms underlying the formation of such strain-induced SPEs are still not fully clear, which hinders further efforts in their deterministic integration with nanophotonic structures for developing practical on-chip sources of quantum light. Here we investigate SPEs with single-photon purity up to 98% created in monolayer WSe$_2$ via nanoindentation. Using photoluminescence imaging in combination with atomic force microscopy, we locate single-photon emitting sites on a deep sub-wavelength spatial scale and reconstruct the details of the surrounding local strain potential. The obtained results suggest that the origin of the observed single-photon emission is likely related to strain-induced spectral shift of dark excitonic states and their hybridization with localized states of individual defects.