Defect Engineering in Large‐Scale CVD‐Grown Hexagonal Boron Nitride: Formation, Spectroscopy, and Spin Relaxation Dynamics

Vlassiouk, Ivan V.; Wu, Yueh‐Chun; Puretzky, Alexander; Liang, Liangbo; Lasseter, John C.; Dryzhakov, Bogdan; Gallagher, Ian; Ghosh, Sujoy; Lavrik, Nickolay; Dyck, Ondrej; Lupini, Andrew R.; Checa Nualart, Marti; Collins, Liam; Meyer III, Harry M.; Zhao, Huan; Likhi, Farzana; Xiao, Kai; Ivanov, Ilia; Glasgow, David; Tselev, Alexander; Lawrie, Benjamin; Smirnov, Sergei N.; Randolph, Steven J.

doi:10.1002/smll.202506874

Title: Defect Engineering in Large‐Scale CVD‐Grown Hexagonal Boron Nitride: Formation, Spectroscopy, and Spin Relaxation Dynamics

Journal Article · Fri Oct 31 00:00:00 UTC 2025 · Small

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202506874 · OSTI ID:3010637

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Univ. of Houston, TX (United States)
Univ. of Aveiro (Portugal)
New Mexico State Univ., Las Cruces, NM (United States)

Recently, numerous techniques have been reported for generating optically active defects in exfoliated hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), which hold transformative potential for quantum photonic devices. However, achieving on-demand generation of desirable defect types in scalable hBN films remains a significant challenge. Here, it is demonstrated that formation of negative boron vacancy defects, V_B⁻, in suspended, large-area CVD-grown hBN is strongly dependent on the type of bombarding particles (ions, neutrons, and electrons) and irradiation conditions. In contrast to suspended hBN, defect formation in substrate-supported hBN is more complex due to the uncontrollable generation of secondary particles from the substrate, and the outcome strongly depends on the thickness of the hBN. Different defect types are identified by correlating spectroscopic and optically detected magnetic resonance features, distinguishing boron vacancies (formed by light ions and neutrons and emitting at 800 nm) from other optically active defects emitting at 650 nm assigned to anti-site nitrogen vacancy (N_BV_N) and reveal the presence of additional “dark” paramagnetic defects that influence spin-lattice relaxation time (T₁) and zero-field splitting parameters, all of which strongly depend on the defect density. These results underscore the potential for precisely engineered defect formation in large-scale CVD-grown hBN, paving the way for the scalable fabrication of quantum photonic devices.

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Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division (MSE); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231; AC05-00OR22725

OSTI ID:: 3010637

Journal Information:: Small, Journal Name: Small; ISSN 1613-6810; ISSN 1613-6829

Publisher:: WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Title: Defect Engineering in Large‐Scale CVD‐Grown Hexagonal Boron Nitride: Formation, Spectroscopy, and Spin Relaxation Dynamics

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