Room Temperature Quantum Emission from Cubic Silicon Carbide Nanoparticles

• Published in: ACS nano 2014-08, Vol.8 (8), p.7938-7947
• Main Authors: Castelletto, Stefania, Johnson, Brett C, Zachreson, Cameron, Beke, David, Balogh, István, Ohshima, Takeshi, Aharonovich, Igor, Gali, Adam
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1936-0851; 1936-086X
• DOI: 10.1021/nn502719y

The photoluminescence (PL) arising from silicon carbide nanoparticles has so far been associated with the quantum confinement effect or to radiative transitions between electronically active surface states. In this work we show that cubic phase silicon carbide nanoparticles with diameters in the range 45–500 nm can host other point defects responsible for photoinduced intrabandgap PL. We demonstrate that these nanoparticles exhibit single photon emission at room temperature with record saturation count rates of 7 × 106 counts/s. The realization of nonclassical emission from SiC nanoparticles extends their potential use from fluorescence biomarker beads to optically active quantum elements for next generation quantum sensing and nanophotonics. The single photon emission is related to single isolated SiC defects that give rise to states within the bandgap.