Single photon emission from graphene quantum dots at room temperature

Shen Zhao (1) , Julien Lavie (2) , Loïc Rondin (1) , Lucile Orcin-Chaix (1, 2) , Carole Diederichs (3) , Philippe Roussignol (3) , Yannick Chassagneux (3) , Christophe Voisin (3) , Klaus Müllen (4) , Akimitsu Narita (4) , Stéphane Campidelli (2) , Jean‐sébastien Lauret (1)

1 LAC - Laboratoire Aimé Cotton
2 LICSEN UMR 3685 - Laboratoire Innovation en Chimie des Surfaces et NanoSciences
3 LPA - Laboratoire Pierre Aigrain
4 MPI-P - Max-Planck-Institut für Polymerforschung

Graphene being a zero-gap material, considerable efforts have been made to develop semiconductors whose structure is compatible with its hexagonal lattice. Size reduction is a promising way to achieve this objective. The reduction of both dimensions of graphene leads to graphene quantum dots. Here, we report on a single-emitter study that directly addresses the intrinsic emission properties of graphene quantum dots. In particular, we show that they are efficient and stable single-photon emitters at room temperature and that their emission wavelength can be modified through the functionalization of their edges. Finally, the investigation of the intersystem crossing shows that the short triplet lifetime and the low crossing yield are in agreement with the high brightness of these quantum emitters. These results represent a step-forward in performing chemistry engineering for the design of quantum emitters.

Domaines: Matériaux; Chimie-Physique [physics.chem-ph]; Optique [physics.optics]

Shen Zhao, Julien Lavie, Loïc Rondin, Lucile Orcin-Chaix, Carole Diederichs, et al.. Single photon emission from graphene quantum dots at room temperature. Nature Communications, 2018, 9 (1), pp.3470. ⟨10.1038/s41467-018-05888-w⟩. ⟨cea-01863456⟩