2024/11/11 by Domitille Gérard, Gérard, Domitille, Stéphanie Buil +5 · 3 citations
Engineering · Materials Science · #Advancements in Semiconductor Devices and Circuit Design #Boron and Carbon Nanomaterials Research #Diamond and Carbon-based Materials Research #FOS: Physical sciences #Optics (physics.optics)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2411.07202
openalex publication_date 2024/11/11 · openalex created_date 2024/11/15 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We experimentally investigate a solid-state quantum emitter - a B center in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) - that has lifetime-limited coherence at short times, and experiences inhomogeneous broadening due to spectral diffusion at longer times. By making use of power broadening in resonant laser excitation, we explore the crossover between the inhomogeneous and the homogeneous broadening regimes. With the support of numerical simulations, we show that the lineshape, count rate, second-order correlations and long-time photon statistics evolve from a regime where they are dictated by spectral diffusion to a regime where they are simply given by the homogeneous response of the emitter, yielding restored Lorentzian shape and Poissonian photon statistics. Saturation of the count rate and line broadening occur not at the onset of the Rabi oscillations, but when the power-broadened homogeneous response becomes comparable with the inhomogeneous linewidth. Moreover, we identify specific signatures in both the second-order correlations and long-time photon statistics that are well explained by a microscopic spectral diffusion model based on discrete jumps at timescales of micro- to milliseconds. Our work provides an extensive description of the photophysics of B-centers under resonant excitation, and can be readily extended to a wide variety of solid-state quantum emitters.