Temperature dependent temporal coherence of metallic-nanoparticle-induced single-photon emitters in a WSe$_{2}$ monolayer

Abstract

In recent years, much research has been undertaken to investigate the suitability of two-dimensional materials to act as single-photon sources with high optical and quantum optical quality. Amongst them, transition-metal dichalcogenides, especially WSe$_{2}$, have been one of the subjects of intensive studies. Yet, their single-photon purity and photon indistinguishability, remain the most significant challenges to compete with mature semiconducting systems such as self-assembled InGaAs quantum dots. In this work, we explore the emission properties of quantum emitters in a WSe$_{2}$ monolayer which are induced by metallic nanoparticles. Under quasi-resonant pulsed excitation, we verify clean single-photon emission with a $g^{(2)}(0) = 0.036\pm0.004$. Furthermore, we determine its temperature dependent coherence time via Michelson interferometry, where a value of (13.5$\pm$1.0) ps is extracted for the zero-phonon line (ZPL) at 4 K, which reduces to (9$\pm$2) ps at 8 K. Associated time-resolved photoluminescence experiments reveal a decrease of the decay time from (2.4$\pm$0.1) ns to (0.42$\pm$0.05) ns. This change in decay time is explained by a model which considers a F\"orster-type resonant energy transfer process, which yields a strong temperature induced energy loss from the SPE to the nearby Ag nanoparticle.