Boron vacancies in bulk h-BN created by high-energy He+ irradiation
Abstract
While color centers in diamond and other three-dimensional crystals are nowadays key elements of several types of sensors, color centers in two-dimensional materials are rapidly developing and promise high-tech applications. One of the interesting centers in 2D materials is the negatively charged boron vacancy in hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), which has already shown some potential for magnetometry, but the reliable creation of boron vacancies remains challenging. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of negatively charged boron vacancy color centers in bulk h-BN via implantation of helium ions at ~1 MeV, as confirmed by characteristic photoluminescence and optically detected magnetic resonance. The resonance has a width of 180 MHz and exhibits the expected Zeeman shift of the resonance lines. The depth of the color center along the c-axis of the h-BN crystal was measured and compared with predictions from Stopping and Range of Ions in Matter modeling. The experimental value and the modeled prediction are consistent within the reported uncertainties, as their 1σ intervals overlap, although the experiment shows a greater depth and a wider distribution.
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BibTeX
@misc{vilyuzhanina2026boron,
title = {{Boron vacancies in bulk h-BN created by high-energy He+ irradiation}},
author = {P. G. Vilyuzhanina and S. V. Bolshedvorskii and R. Isayev and A. S. Doroshkevich and A. A. Tatarinova and V. V. Soshenko and I. S. Cojocaru and A. M. Kozodaev and S. M. Drofa and A. Chernyavskiy and N. I. Salangin and A. N. Smolyaninov and A. Y. Kuntsevich and A. V. Akimov},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.39535},
eprint = {2609.39535},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.39535},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Boron vacancies in bulk h-BN created by high-energy He+ irradiation
AU - P. G. Vilyuzhanina
AU - S. V. Bolshedvorskii
AU - R. Isayev
AU - A. S. Doroshkevich
AU - A. A. Tatarinova
AU - V. V. Soshenko
AU - I. S. Cojocaru
AU - A. M. Kozodaev
AU - S. M. Drofa
AU - A. Chernyavskiy
AU - N. I. Salangin
AU - A. N. Smolyaninov
AU - A. Y. Kuntsevich
AU - A. V. Akimov
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/30
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.39535
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.39535
AB - While color centers in diamond and other three-dimensional crystals are nowadays key elements of several types of sensors, color centers in two-dimensional materials are rapidly developing and promise high-tech applications. One of the interesting centers in 2D materials is the negatively charged boron vacancy in hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), which has already shown some potential for magnetometry, but the reliable creation of boron vacancies remains challenging. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of negatively charged boron vacancy color centers in bulk h-BN via implantation of helium ions at ~1 MeV, as confirmed by characteristic photoluminescence and optically detected magnetic resonance. The resonance has a width of 180 MHz and exhibits the expected Zeeman shift of the resonance lines. The depth of the color center along the c-axis of the h-BN crystal was measured and compared with predictions from Stopping and Range of Ions in Matter modeling. The experimental value and the modeled prediction are consistent within the reported uncertainties, as their 1σ intervals overlap, although the experiment shows a greater depth and a wider distribution.
ER -