Stable, single-photon emitter in a thin organic crystal for application to quantum-photonic devices

Single dibenzoterrylene (DBT) molecules offer great promise as bright, reliable sources of single photons on demand, capable of integration into solid-state devices. It has been proposed that DBT in anthracene might be placed close to an optical waveguide for this purpose, but so far there have been no demonstrations of sufficiently thin crystals, with a controlled concentration of the dopant molecules. Here we present a method for growing very thin anthracene crystals from super-saturated vapour, which produces crystals of extreme flatness and controlled thickness. We show how this crystal can be doped with an adjustable concentration of dibenzoterrylene (DBT) molecules and we examine the optical properties of these molecules to demonstrate their suitability as quantum emitters in nanophotonic devices. Our measurements show that the molecules are available in the crystal as single quantum emitters, with a well-defined polarisation relative to the crystal axes, making them amenable to alignment with optical nanostructures. We find that the radiative lifetime and saturation intensity vary little within the crystal and are not in any way compromised by the unusual matrix environment. We show that a large fraction of these emitters can be excited more than 10¹² times without photo-bleaching, making them suitable for real applications.