Greatly Enhanced Emission from Spin Defects in Hexagonal Boron Nitride Enabled by a Low-Loss Plasmonic Nanocavity

The negatively charged boron vacancy (VB-) defect in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) with optically addressable spin states has emerged due to its potential use in quantum sensing. Remarkably, VB- preserves its spin coherence when it is implanted at nanometer-scale distances from the hBN surface, potentially enabling ultrathin quantum sensors. However, its low quantum efficiency hinders its practical applications. Studies have reported improving the overall quantum efficiency of VB- defects with plasmonics; however, the overall enhancements of up to 17 times reported to date are relatively modest. Here, we demonstrate much higher emission enhancements of VB- with low-loss nanopatch antennas (NPAs). An overall intensity enhancement of up to 250 times is observed, corresponding to an actual emission enhancement of -1685 times by the NPA, along with preserved optically detected magnetic resonance contrast. Our results establish NPA-coupled VB- defects as high-resolution magnetic field sensors and provide a promising approach to obtaining single VB- defects.

Automated summary

The negatively charged boron vacancy defect in boron nitride has potential in quantum sensing, but its low quantum efficiency hampers its practical applications. This study demonstrates significantly higher emission enhancements of the defect using low-loss nanopatch antennas, making it a promising high-resolution magnetic field sensor.