Nanoparticle Stressor-Induced Single-photon Sources in Monolayer WS$_2$ Emitting into a Narrowband Visible Spectral Range

Abstract

A van der Waals heterostructure containing an atomically thin monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenide as a single-photon emitting layer is emerging as an intriguing solid-state quantum-photonic platform. Here, we report the utilization of spin-coating of silica nanoparticles for deterministically creating the spectrally isolated, energetically stable, and narrow-linewidth single-photon emitters in ML-WS$_2$. We also demonstrate that long-duration low-temperature annealing of the photonic heterostructure in the vacuum removes the energetically unstable emitters that are present due to fabrication-associated residue and lead to the emission of single-photons in a <25 nm narrowband visible spectral range centered at $\sim$620 nm. This work may pave the way toward realizing a hybrid-quantum-photonic platform containing a van der Waals heterostructure/device and an atomic-vapor system emitting/absorbing in the same visible spectral range.