Among the variety of quantum emitters in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), blue-emitting color centers, or B centers, have garnered particular interest owing to their excellent quantum optical properties. Moreover, the fact that they can be locally activated by an electron beam makes them suitable for top-down integration into photonic devices. However, in the absence of a real-time monitoring technique sensitive to individual emitters, the activation process is stochastic in the number of emitters, and its mechanism is under debate. Here, we implement an in situ cathodoluminescence monitoring setup capable of detecting individual quantum emitters in the blue and ultraviolet (UV) range. We demonstrate that the activation of individual B centers is spatially and temporally correlated with the deactivation of individual UV centers emitting at 4.1 eV, which are ubiquitous in hBN. We then make use of the ability to detect individual B center activation events to demonstrate the controlled creation of an array with only one emitter per irradiation site. Additionally, we demonstrate a symmetric technique for the heralded selective deactivation of individual emitters. Our results provide insights into the microscopic structure and activation mechanism of B centers, as well as versatile techniques for their deterministic integration.
Marcos et al. (Wed,) studied this question.