Temperature-dependent Spectral Emission of Hexagonal Boron Nitride Quantum Emitters on Conductive and Dielectric Substrates

Abstract

We report a reduction in the linewidth and suppression of spectral diffusion of quantum emitters in hexagonal boron nitride supported on a conductive substrate. We observe a temperature-dependent reduction in the spectral emission linewidth for CVD-grown and exfoliated crystals on conductive ITO relative to those seen on silicon dioxide (SiO₂) substrates. We show that the inhomogeneous linewidth can be suppressed by 45% as a result of using a conductive substrate. We investigate the zero-phonon line profile at temperatures ranging from 4 to 300 K and decompose the effects of thermal broadening and spectral diffusion at each temperature by Voigt fitting. The temperature dependence of homogeneous and inhomogeneous components of the broadening is discussed.