Photoluminescence Upconversion by Defects in Hexagonal Boron Nitride

Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) was recently reported to display single photon emission from ultraviolet to near-infrared range due to the existence of defects. Single photon emission has potential applications in quantum information processing and optoelectronics. These findings trigger increasing research interests in h-BN defects, such as revealing the nature of the defects. Here, we report another intriguing defect property in h-BN, namely photoluminescence (PL) upconversion (anti-Stokes process). The energy gain by the PL upconversion is about 162 meV. The anomalous PL upconversion is attributed to optical phonon absorption in the one-photon excitation process, based on excitation power, excitation wavelength, and temperature-dependence investigations. Possible constitutions of the defects are discussed from the results of scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) studies and theoretical calculations. These findings show that defects in h-BN exhibit strong defect-phonon coupling. The results from STEM and theoretical calculations are beneficial for understanding the constitution of the h-BN defects.