Development of a Scanning Confocal Microscopy to Study Single Quantum Emitters

Quantum emitters like the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centres in diamonds and defects in 2D materials, such as hexagonal Boron Nitride (hBN), represent a promising avenue for stable, room-temperature single photon sources. Such sources have a wide range of potential applications in quantum computing and quantum key distribution. It is required to locate the quantum emitters in the sample to study emitter-specific background-free emission dynamics. We have built a scanning confocal microscopy setup to image single quantum emitters and study their emission dynamics. The study involves emission intensity and decay rate measurements, spin manipulations using an external microwave field, and a single photon source detection using Hanbury Brown and Twiss (HBT) interferometry. The NV centre emission properties are extensively studied using this setup. This technique proves especially valuable for investigating single photon sources, as the accurate localisation of emitters is crucial in such studies.