Controlled generation of luminescent centers in hexagonal boron nitride by irradiation engineering.

Luminescent centers in the two-dimensional material hexagonal boron nitride have the potential to enable quantum applications at room temperature. To be used for applications, it is crucial to generate these centers in a controlled manner and to identify their microscopic nature. Here, we present a method inspired by irradiation engineering with oxygen atoms. We systematically explore the influence of the kinetic energy and the irradiation fluence on the generation of luminescent centers. We find modifications of their density for both parameters, while a fivefold enhancement is observed with increasing fluence. Molecular dynamics simulations clarify the generation mechanism of these centers and their microscopic nature. We infer that VNCB and [Formula: see text] are the most likely centers formed. Ab initio calculations of their optical properties show excellent agreement with our experiments. Our methodology generates quantum emitters in a controlled manner and provides insights into their microscopic nature.

Classification of scalar and dyadic nonlocal optical response models.

Nonlocal optical response is one of the emerging effects on the nanoscale for particles made of metals or doped semiconductors. Here we classify and compare both scalar and tensorial nonlocal response models. In the latter case the nonlocality can stem from either the longitudinal response, the transverse response, or both. In phenomenological scalar models the nonlocal response is described as a smearing out of the commonly assumed infinitely localized response, as characterized by a distribution with a finite width. Here we calculate explicitly whether and how tensorial models, such as the hydrodynamic Drude model and generalized nonlocal optical response theory, follow this phenomenological description. We find considerable differences, for example that nonlocal response functions, in contrast to simple distributions, assume negative and complex values. Moreover, nonlocal response regularizes some but not all diverging optical near fields. We identify the scalar model that comes closest to the hydrodynamic model. Interestingly, for the hydrodynamic Drude model we find that actually only one third (1/3) of the free-electron response is smeared out nonlocally. In that sense, nonlocal response is stronger for transverse and scalar nonlocal response models, where the smeared-out fractions are 2/3 and 3/3, respectively. The latter two models seem to predict novel plasmonic resonances also below the plasma frequency, in contrast to the hydrodynamic model that predicts standing pressure waves only above the plasma frequency.

A generalized non-local optical response theory for plasmonic nanostructures.

Metallic nanostructures exhibit a multitude of optical resonances associated with localized surface plasmon excitations. Recent observations of plasmonic phenomena at the sub-nanometre to atomic scale have stimulated the development of various sophisticated theoretical approaches for their description. Here instead we present a comparatively simple semiclassical generalized non-local optical response theory that unifies quantum pressure convection effects and induced charge diffusion kinetics, with a concomitant complex-valued generalized non-local optical response parameter. Our theory explains surprisingly well both the frequency shifts and size-dependent damping in individual metallic nanoparticles as well as the observed broadening of the crossover regime from bonding-dipole plasmons to charge-transfer plasmons in metal nanoparticle dimers, thus unravelling a classical broadening mechanism that even dominates the widely anticipated short circuiting by quantum tunnelling. We anticipate that our theory can be successfully applied in plasmonics to a wide class of conducting media, including doped semiconductors and low-dimensional materials such as graphene.

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy: nonlocal limitations.

Giant field enhancement and field singularities are a natural consequence of the commonly employed local-response framework. We show that a more general nonlocal treatment of the plasmonic response leads to new and possibly fundamental limitations on field enhancement with important consequences for our understanding of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). The intrinsic length scale of the electron gas serves to smear out assumed field singularities, leaving the SERS enhancement factor finite, even for geometries with infinitely sharp features. For silver nanogroove structures, mimicked by periodic arrays of half-cylinders (up to 120 nm in radius), we find no enhancement factors exceeding 10 orders of magnitude (10(10)).

Coupling nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond to superconducting flux qubits.

We propose a method to achieve coherent coupling between nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond and superconducting (SC) flux qubits. The resulting coupling can be used to create a coherent interaction between the spin states of distant NV centers mediated by the flux qubit. Furthermore, the magnetic coupling can be used to achieve a coherent transfer of quantum information between the flux qubit and an ensemble of NV centers. This enables a long-term memory for a SC quantum processor and possibly an interface between SC qubits and light.