OSA Fellow Lecture: Hexagonal Boron Nitride – Emerging Platform for Quantum Photonics
28 May 2021 13:00 - 14:00
Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney (UTC +10:00)Engineering robust solid-state quantum systems is among the most pressing challenges to realize scalable quantum photonic circuitry. While several 3D systems (such as diamond or silicon carbide) have been thoroughly studied, solid state emitters in two-dimensional (2D) materials are still in their infancy. In this webinar, Prof. Aharonovich will discuss the appeal of an emerging van der Waals crystal – hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). This unique system possesses a large bandgap of ~ 6 eV and can host single defects that can act as ultra-bright quantum light sources. In addition, some of these defects exhibit spin dependent fluorescence that can be initialized and coherently manipulated, and the hBN crystals can be carefully sculpted into nanoscale photonic resonators to confine and guide light at the nanoscale. It has all the vital constituents to become the leading platform for integrated quantum photonics. Prof. Aharonovich will highlight the challenges and opportunities in engineering hBN devices and will frame it more broadly in the growing interest with 2D materials nanophotonics.
About The Speaker: Igor Aharonovich, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia
Igor Aharonovich received his PhD from the University of Melbourne, Australia and spent two years at Harvard University, USA as a postdoctoral researcher in Evelyn Hu's group. In 2013, he returned to Australia and joined the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), where he is currently a full Professor and the UTS node director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems. Aharonovich is an OSA Fellow and has received numerous international awards and recognitions including the Pawsey Medal from the Australian Academy of Science, the C.N. Yang Award for prominent young researchers in the Asia Pacific region, and the Kavli Foundation Early Career Lectureship in Materials Science from Materials Research Society.
