Ke-Sean J.M. Peter and nine colleagues report that boron nitride nanotubes function as room-temperature sources of single photons, potentially easing challenges in building quantum communication networks. The researchers identified multiple single photon emitters along each nanotube, emitting light across the entire visible spectrum, including wavelengths not previously observed in hexagonal boron nitride.

These emitters exhibited lifetimes as fast as 0.5 nanoseconds, a two-fold increase over the fastest emitters found in boron nitride flakes, and surface treatment demonstrably improved their stability. “Boron nitride nanotubes can function as a single structure supporting a variety of multiwavelength single photon emitters,” the authors write, “while maintaining a compact radius of approximately 25 nanometers, making them ideally suited for deterministic placement and integration within nanophotonic devices.”

Boron Nitride Nanotubes Exhibit Multi-Wavelength Single Photon Emission

The research team identified multiple distinct single photon emitters along each individual nanotube, a characteristic not typically seen in two-dimensional hexagonal boron nitride materials. Surface passivation techniques were also successfully employed, demonstrably reducing the incidence of “blinking events” that can destabilize single photon emission and increasing the reliability and sustained output of the emitters, a critical factor for practical quantum technologies. The ability to create a dense array of stable, multi-wavelength single photon sources within a single structure represents a step toward scalable quantum photonic systems.

👉 More information
🗞 Room-Temperature Quantum Emission from Boron Nitride Nanotubes
✍️ Ke-Sean J. M. Peter et al.
🧠 ArXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.08460v1

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