Photon statistics analysis of h-BN quantum emitters with pulsed and continuous-wave excitation

Abstract

We report on the quantum photon statistics of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) quantum emitters by analyzing the Mandel Q parameter. We have measured the Mandel Q parameter for h-BN quantum emitters under various temperature and pump power excitation conditions. Under pulsed excitation, we can achieve a Mandel Q of −0.002, and under continuous-wave excitation, this parameter can reach −0.0025. We investigate the effect of cryogenic temperatures on Mandel Q and conclude that the photon statistics vary weakly with temperature. Through the calculation of spontaneous emission from an excited two-level emitter model, we demonstrate good agreement between the measured and calculated Mandel Q parameters when accounting for the experimental photon collection efficiency. Finally, we illustrate the usefulness of Mandel Q in quantum applications by the example of random number generation and analyze the effect of Mandel Q on the speed of generating random bits via this method.