Hannah Stern Researcher Visit

Spatially-Resolving Dynamics and Structure in Molecular and 2D Semiconductors with Super-Resolution

Hannah Stern visited the group of Professor Naomi Ginsberg at UC Berkeley for three months, as part of the Winton-Berkeley exchange. The aim of the visit was to use high spatially-resolved techniques in the Ginsberg group to explore emission from optically active defects in monolayers of hexagonal Boron Nitride (hBN). h-BN is a 2D wide bandgap semiconductor that is of interest for quantum technologies due to the newly-discovered single photon emission behaviour at room temperature.

During the visit, cathodoluminescence (CL) spectroscopy was used to explore UV emission in the 2D material, confocal and widefield microscopies were performed to investigate emission from atomically thin samples, and work was started towards correlative imaging, to combine TEM with photoluminescence. During the exchange Hannah worked with students from the groups of Professor Alex Zettl (TEM) and Professor Norm Yao (confocal), as well as conducting experiments in the Lawrence Berkeley Labs. Ongoing work will continue to develop correlative imaging to match atomic structure with emission properties.