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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Current-induced brightening of vacancy-related emitters in hexagonal boron nitride

Corinne Steiner1,2,*, Rebecca Rahmel1, Frank Volmer1,3, Rika Windisch4, Lars H. Janssen1, Patricia Pesch1, Kenji Watanabe5, Takashi Taniguchi6, Florian Libisch4 et al.

Bernd Beschoten1, Christoph Stampfer1,2, and Annika Kurzmann1,7,†

  • *Contact author: corinne.steiner@rwth-aachen.de
  • †Contact author: kurzmann@ph2.uni-koeln.de
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Phys. Rev. Research 7, L032037 – Published 19 August, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/cd62-5hq8

Abstract

We perform photoluminescence measurements on vacancy-related emitters in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) that are notorious for their low quantum yields. The gating of these emitters via few-layer graphene electrodes reveals a reproducible, gate-dependent brightening of the emitter, which coincides with a change in the direction of the simultaneously measured leakage current across the hBN layers. At the same time, we observe that the relative increase of the brightening effect scales linearly with the intensity of the excitation laser. Both observations can be explained in terms of a photo-assisted electroluminescence effect. Interestingly, emitters can also show the opposite behavior, i.e., a decrease in emitter intensity that depends on the gate leakage current. We explain these two opposing behaviors by different concentrations of donor and acceptor states in the hBN and show that precise control of the doping of hBN is necessary to gain control over the brightness of vacancy-related emitters by electrical means. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of vacancy-related defect emitters in hBN that is necessary to make use of their potential in quantum information processing.

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Phys. Rev. Research 7, L032037– Published 19 August, 2025
  • Received 25 February 2025
  • Accepted 28 June 2025
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