Efficient single photon emission from a high-purity hexagonal boron nitride crystal

Among a variety of layered materials used as building blocks in van der Waals heterostructures, hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) appears as an ideal platform for hosting optically active defects owing to its large band gap (~6 eV). Here we study the optical response of a high-purity hBN crystal under green laser illumination. By means of photon correlation measurements, we identify individual defects emitting a highly photostable fluorescence under ambient conditions. A detailed analysis of the photophysical properties reveals a high quantum efficiency of the radiative transition, leading to a single photon source with very high brightness (~4×106 counts s−1). These results illustrate how the wide range of applications offered by hBN could be further extended to photonic-based quantum information science and metrology.