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Geometric Control of Visible Emitter Creation in Hexagonal Boron Nitride by Oblique Ion Irradiation
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Geometric Control of Visible Emitter Creation in Hexagonal Boron Nitride by Oblique Ion Irradiation

Sagar Chowdhury, Bhaveshkumar Kamaliya, Ramachandra Bangari, Caleb Whittier, Joseph Spielbauer, Nabil D Bassim, Thomas G Folland and Ravitej Uppu
arXiv
arXiv
08/07/2026
DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2608.06693
url
https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2608.06693View
Preprint (Author's original) This preprint has not been evaluated by subject experts through peer review. Preprints may undergo extensive changes and/or become peer-reviewed journal articles. Open Access

Abstract

Ion irradiation creates optically active defects in wide-bandgap van der Waals materials, yet most approaches tune defect formation by varying the ion species, energy, or fluence while leaving the incidence geometry fixed. The ion-incidence angle is established here as a geometric control parameter for engineering visible emitters in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). The angle and ion fluence of a plasma-focused heavy-ion (Xe+) beam are varied across hBN flakes of different thickness, and the resulting photoluminescence is quantified. In thick flakes, oblique irradiation shifts the fluence for maximum emission by nearly two orders of magnitude relative to normal incidence, whereas thin flakes exhibit an angle-independent optimum. Ion-trajectory simulations attribute this thickness dependence to lateral redistribution of the collision cascade and enhanced oblique sputtering. Atomic force microscopy identifies distinct processing regimes that delineate the useful defect-creation window. Post-irradiation annealing quenches the emission and shifts the spectral weight toward the green-yellow band while preserving the angle-dependent activation trends. Spectrally resolved lifetime measurements show comparable biexponential dynamics for normal and oblique incidence, consistent with emission from related defect families rather than a geometry-specific emitter species. These results establish ion-incidence geometry as a materials-level knob for programming optical defect activation and spatial defect distributions in van der Waals photonic materials.
 Physics - Materials Science Physics - Optics

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