Defect Engineering Enables Site-Controlled Single-Photon Generation in Monolayer WSe₂ up to 150 K

Single-photon emitters hosted by WSe₂ provide unique advantages over existing technologies, notably the potential for site-specific enginering. However, the required cryogenic temperatures for these sources' functionality have been an inhibitor of their full potential. Existing fabrication methods, solely focusing on strain engineering, face fundamental challenges in extending the working temperature while maintaining the emitter's fabrication yield and purity. This work demonstrates a novel method of designing site-specific single-photon emitters in atomically thin WSe₂ with near-unity yield utilizing independent and simultaneous strain engineering via nanoscale stressors and defect engineering via electron-beam irradiation. This method enabled emitters with purities above 95%, and working temperatures up to 150K, which is the highest observed in vdW semiconductor single-photon emitters without Purcell enhancement . This methodology, coupled with possible plasmonic or optical micro-cavity integration, potentially furthers the realization of future scalable, room-temperature, and high-quality vdW quantum light sources.