Intracellular biocompatible hexagonal boron nitride quantum emitters as single-photon sources and barcodes

Area of Science:

• Quantum optics and photonics
• Biomaterials and nanotechnology
• Cellular imaging and diagnostics

Background:

• Color centers in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) show promise for optical applications and biomedical uses due to biocompatibility.
• hBN's unique optical properties make it suitable for quantum information processing and imaging.
• The need for advanced cellular barcoding techniques is growing in biological research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate single-photon emission from hBN color centers within live cells.
• To apply these hBN color centers for robust cellular barcoding.
• To explore the potential of hBN for quantum-limited sensing and super-resolution imaging.

Main Methods:

• Single-photon emission from hBN color centers was generated and internalized into live cells via a scalable procedure.
• Cells with embedded hBN color centers were analyzed for emission characteristics, including purity and stability.
• Different emission wavelengths and peak widths of hBN color centers were utilized to create unique barcodes.

Main Results:

• Single-photon emission was successfully observed from hBN color centers within live cells.
• The emission exhibited high single-photon purity (0.1) and stability over hours without photobleaching or spectral shifts.
• Quantum Photonic Barcodes (QPBs) were developed, with each QPB having 470 distinguishable states, enabling unique cellular tagging.

Conclusions:

• hBN color centers provide a robust platform for cellular barcoding with unique, stable, and biocompatible quantum photonic barcodes (QPBs).
• The developed method is simple, scalable, and preserves cell viability.
• This work lays the foundation for future applications in quantum-limited sensing and super-resolution imaging.