Competition between vacancy creation and filling in defect-engineering of hBN
Abstract
Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) has recently become the focus of intense research as a material that can host quantum emitters. It is known that such emission is related to point defects, but in order to conclusively correlate specific defects to their spectra, having control over the defect creation mechanism is required. Here, we prepare freestanding, monolayer hBN samples and irradiate them with ultra-low-energy (150 eV) Ar+ ions. The samples are characterized before and after irradiation via scanning transmission electron microscopy to assess the defect density and distribution. Contrary to what analytical potential molecular dynamics simulations have predicted, we predominantly observe boron single vacancies after ion irradiation, followed by double vacancies at half the count. Moreover, we also observe that vacancy filling with Si and C impurity atoms plays a more significant role in the created defects than previously assumed, potentially posing a problem for selective creation of quantum emitters in hBN.
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BibTeX
@misc{chokappa2026competition,
title = {{Competition between vacancy creation and filling in defect-engineering of hBN}},
author = {Shrirang Chokappa and Manuel Längle and Barbara Maria Mayer and Vladimir Zobač and Jacob Madsen and Diana Propst and David Lamprecht and Philipp Irschik and Arixin Bo and Clara Kofler and Vinzent Hana and Fabian Kraft and Clemens Mangler and Lado Filipovic and Toma Susi and Jani Kotakoski},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.11666},
eprint = {2609.11666},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.11666},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Competition between vacancy creation and filling in defect-engineering of hBN
AU - Shrirang Chokappa
AU - Manuel Längle
AU - Barbara Maria Mayer
AU - Vladimir Zobač
AU - Jacob Madsen
AU - Diana Propst
AU - David Lamprecht
AU - Philipp Irschik
AU - Arixin Bo
AU - Clara Kofler
AU - Vinzent Hana
AU - Fabian Kraft
AU - Clemens Mangler
AU - Lado Filipovic
AU - Toma Susi
AU - Jani Kotakoski
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/11
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.11666
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.11666
AB - Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) has recently become the focus of intense research as a material that can host quantum emitters. It is known that such emission is related to point defects, but in order to conclusively correlate specific defects to their spectra, having control over the defect creation mechanism is required. Here, we prepare freestanding, monolayer hBN samples and irradiate them with ultra-low-energy (150 eV) Ar+ ions. The samples are characterized before and after irradiation via scanning transmission electron microscopy to assess the defect density and distribution. Contrary to what analytical potential molecular dynamics simulations have predicted, we predominantly observe boron single vacancies after ion irradiation, followed by double vacancies at half the count. Moreover, we also observe that vacancy filling with Si and C impurity atoms plays a more significant role in the created defects than previously assumed, potentially posing a problem for selective creation of quantum emitters in hBN.
ER -