Chemomechanical modification of quantum emission in monolayer WSe 2 .
M Iqbal Bakti UtamaHongfei ZengTumpa SadhukhanAnushka DasguptaS Carin GavinRiddhi AnanthDmitry LebedevWei WangJia-Shiang ChenKenji WatanabeTakashi TaniguchiTobin J MarksXuedan MaEmily Allyn WeissGeorge C SchatzNathaniel P SternMark C HersamPublished in: Nature communications (2023)
Two-dimensional (2D) materials have attracted attention for quantum information science due to their ability to host single-photon emitters (SPEs). Although the properties of atomically thin materials are highly sensitive to surface modification, chemical functionalization remains unexplored in the design and control of 2D material SPEs. Here, we report a chemomechanical approach to modify SPEs in monolayer WSe 2 through the synergistic combination of localized mechanical strain and noncovalent surface functionalization with aryl diazonium chemistry. Following the deposition of an aryl oligomer adlayer, the spectrally complex defect-related emission of strained monolayer WSe 2 is simplified into spectrally isolated SPEs with high single-photon purity. Density functional theory calculations reveal energetic alignment between WSe 2 defect states and adsorbed aryl oligomer energy levels, thus providing insight into the observed chemomechanically modified quantum emission. By revealing conditions under which chemical functionalization tunes SPEs, this work broadens the parameter space for controlling quantum emission in 2D materials.