{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,5]],"date-time":"2026-08-05T02:22:14Z","timestamp":1785896534219,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"IOP Publishing","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,14]],"date-time":"2025-05-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1747180800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,14]],"date-time":"2025-05-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1747180800000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/info\/page\/text-and-data-mining"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001659","name":"Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["328545488"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["328545488"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001659","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100002347","name":"Bundesministerium f\u00fcr Bildung und Forschung","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["05K22KE3"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["05K22KE3"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100002347","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["iopscience.iop.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["2D Mater."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n               <jats:p>Single-photon emission centers generated by controlled atomic force microscope (AFM) indentation in monolayer WSe<jats:sub>2<\/jats:sub> on a flexible polymer substrate are explored for applications in quantum technologies. Here, we study the response of these emitters to the polymer substrate\u2019s strain state, which is controlled by selecting the indentation force and by gradually thermally annealing the samples. In the indented areas, we observe sharp new photoluminescence peaks in the regions 1.62\u20131.68\u2009eV and 1.70\u20131.73\u2009eV characterized by sublinear power dependence and spectral wandering. We find that these peaks arise only when the indentation force exceeds a few <jats:italic>\u00b5<\/jats:italic>N and generally red-shift as the applied force increases. Conversely, after thermal annealing (<jats:italic>T<\/jats:italic>\n                  <jats:inline-formula>\n                     <jats:tex-math\/>\n                     <mml:math xmlns:mml=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1998\/Math\/MathML\" overflow=\"scroll\">\n                        <mml:mrow>\n                           <mml:mo>&lt;<\/mml:mo>\n                           <mml:mn>60<\/mml:mn>\n                           <mml:msup>\n                              <mml:mstyle scriptlevel=\"0\"\/>\n                              <mml:mrow>\n                                 <mml:mo>\u2218<\/mml:mo>\n                              <\/mml:mrow>\n                           <\/mml:msup>\n                        <\/mml:mrow>\n                     <\/mml:math>\n                  <\/jats:inline-formula>C), WSe<jats:sub>2<\/jats:sub> experiences strain relaxation, leading to a blue shift of the peaks\u2019 spectral position and their ultimate disappearance. Our analysis of the peaks\u2019 positions vs strain allows us to draw several conclusions about the nature of these emission. Specifically, we elucidate the roles of excitonic confinement and hybridization between free excitons and defect-related states, a process activated by the strain level. Overall, our approach suggests that the energy of localized emitters may be controlled via strain engineering.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1088\/2053-1583\/add414","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,5]],"date-time":"2025-05-05T22:47:58Z","timestamp":1746485278000},"page":"035006","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1088\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Strain activation of localized states in WSe<sub>2<\/sub>"],"prefix":"10.1088","volume":"12","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7920-2523","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"O\u011fuzhan","family":"Y\u00fccel","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9135-8918","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Denis","family":"Yagodkin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8576-4787","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Jan N","family":"Kirchhof","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0008-0201-9123","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Yuefeng","family":"Yu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3645-6061","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Abhijeet M","family":"Kumar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Adrian","family":"Dewambrechies","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4817-1939","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Sviatoslav","family":"Kovalchuk","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1821-3429","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kirill I","family":"Bolotin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"266","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,14]]},"reference":[{"key":"tdmadd414bib1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1103\/RevModPhys.90.021001","article-title":"Colloquium: excitons in atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenides","volume":"90","author":"Wang","year":"2018","journal-title":"Rev. Mod. Phys."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"778","DOI":"10.1038\/s41578-022-00440-1","article-title":"Emerging exciton physics in transition metal dichalcogenide heterobilayers","volume":"7","author":"Regan","year":"2022","journal-title":"Nat. Rev. Mater."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"29","DOI":"10.1038\/s41699-018-0074-2","article-title":"Exciton physics and device application of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide semiconductors","volume":"2","author":"Mueller","year":"2018","journal-title":"npj 2D Mater. Appl."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevB.88.045318","article-title":"Theory of neutral and charged excitons in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides","volume":"88","author":"Berkelbach","year":"2013","journal-title":"Phys. Rev. B"},{"key":"tdmadd414bib5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"792","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevLett.64.792","article-title":"Picosecond stimulated photon echo due to intrinsic excitations in semiconductor mixed crystals","volume":"64","author":"Noll","year":"1990","journal-title":"Phys. Rev. Lett."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"934","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevLett.66.934","article-title":"Observation of time-resolved picosecond stimulated photon echoes and free polarization decay in GaAs\/AlGaAs multiple quantum wells","volume":"66","author":"Webb","year":"1991","journal-title":"Phys. Rev. Lett."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"765","DOI":"10.1016\/0022-3697(90)90148-9","article-title":"Localized exciton states in silver halides","volume":"51","author":"Von der Osten","year":"1990","journal-title":"J. Phys. Chem. Solids"},{"key":"tdmadd414bib8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevLett.123.146401","article-title":"Localized intervalley defect excitons as single-photon emitters in WSe2","volume":"123","author":"Linhart","year":"2019","journal-title":"Phys. Rev. Lett."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2129","DOI":"10.1021\/acs.nanolett.0c00138","article-title":"Spin-valley locking effect in defect states of monolayer MoS2","volume":"20","author":"Wang","year":"2020","journal-title":"Nano Lett."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"71","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-030-01482-7_4","article-title":"Atomically-thin quantum light emitting diodes","author":"Palacios-Berraquero","year":"2018"},{"key":"tdmadd414bib11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1038\/s41467-023-41292-9","article-title":"Photoluminescence imaging of single photon emitters within nanoscale strain profiles in monolayer WSe2","author":"Abramov","year":"2023"},{"key":"tdmadd414bib12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"255","DOI":"10.1002\/1438-5171(200112)2:43.0.CO;2-D","article-title":"Spectroscopy of single N-V centers in diamond","volume":"2","author":"Jelezko","year":"2001","journal-title":"Single Mol."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"128","DOI":"10.1038\/s41565-017-0030-x","article-title":"Electrical control of charged carriers and excitons in atomically thin materials","volume":"13","author":"Wang","year":"2018","journal-title":"Nat. Nanotechnol."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/adom.201800420","article-title":"Light emission properties of 2D transition metal dichalcogenides: fundamentals and applications","volume":"6","author":"Zheng","year":"2018","journal-title":"Adv. Opt. Mater."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/ncomms15093","article-title":"Large-scale quantum-emitter arrays in atomically thin semiconductors","volume":"8","author":"Palacios-Berraquero","year":"2017","journal-title":"Nat. Commun."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/ncomms15053","article-title":"Deterministic strain-induced arrays of quantum emitters in a two-dimensional semiconductor","volume":"8","author":"Branny","year":"2017","journal-title":"Nat. Commun."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"904","DOI":"10.1021\/acsnano.8b08730","article-title":"Quantum calligraphy: writing single-photon emitters in a two-dimensional materials platform","volume":"13","author":"Rosenberger","year":"2019","journal-title":"ACS Nano"},{"key":"tdmadd414bib18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"eabj3176","DOI":"10.1126\/sciadv.abj3176","article-title":"Electrically driven strain-induced deterministic single-photon emitters in a van der Waals heterostructure","volume":"7","author":"So","year":"2021","journal-title":"Sci. Adv."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"477","DOI":"10.1515\/nanoph-2022-0628","article-title":"Purcell enhancement and polarization control of single-photon emitters in monolayer WSe2 using dielectric nanoantennas","volume":"12","author":"Azzam","year":"2023","journal-title":"Nanophotonics"},{"key":"tdmadd414bib20","first-page":"p FW3J.2","article-title":"Cavity optomechanics with WSe2 single photon emitters","author":"Patel","year":"2023"},{"key":"tdmadd414bib21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"631","DOI":"10.1038\/nphoton.2016.186","article-title":"Solid-state single-photon emitters","volume":"10","author":"Aharonovich","year":"2016","journal-title":"Nat. Photon."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"3944","DOI":"10.1021\/acs.nanolett.6b01580","article-title":"Single defect light-emitting diode in a van der Waals heterostructure","volume":"16","author":"Clark","year":"2016","journal-title":"Nano Lett."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"5866","DOI":"10.1021\/acs.nanolett.0c01789","article-title":"Creation of single-photon emitters in WSe2 monolayers using nanometer-sized gold tips","volume":"20","author":"Peng","year":"2020","journal-title":"Nano Lett."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib24","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2657","DOI":"10.1038\/srep02657","article-title":"Defects activated photoluminescence in two-dimensional semiconductors: interplay between bound, charged and free excitons","volume":"3","author":"Tongay","year":"2013","journal-title":"Sci. Rep."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib25","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"491","DOI":"10.1038\/nnano.2015.60","article-title":"Optically active quantum dots in monolayer WSe2","volume":"10","author":"Srivastava","year":"2015","journal-title":"Nat. Nanotechnol."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/adfm.202306128","article-title":"Activated single photon emitters and enhanced deep-level emissions in hexagonal boron nitride strain crystal","volume":"34","author":"Chen","year":"2023","journal-title":"Adv. Funct. Mater."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"3585","DOI":"10.1038\/s41467-021-23709-5","article-title":"Defect and strain engineering of monolayer WSe2 enables site-controlled single-photon emission up to 150\u2009K","volume":"12","author":"Parto","year":"2021","journal-title":"Nat. Commun."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib28","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"7691","DOI":"10.1038\/s41467-022-35352-9","article-title":"Strain control of hybridization between dark and localized excitons in a 2D semiconductor","volume":"13","author":"Hern\u00e1ndez L\u00f3pez","year":"2022","journal-title":"Nat. Commun."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib29","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"8101","DOI":"10.1021\/acsanm.1c01368","article-title":"Enhanced dielectric screening and photoluminescence from nanopillar-strained MoS2 nanosheets: implications for strain funneling in optoelectronic applications","volume":"4","author":"Vutukuru","year":"2021","journal-title":"ACS Appl. Nano Mater."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib30","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"324","DOI":"10.1038\/s41566-019-0581-5","article-title":"Dynamics and efficient conversion of excitons to trions in non-uniformly strained monolayer WS2","volume":"14","author":"Harats","year":"2020","journal-title":"Nat. Photon."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib31","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"6931","DOI":"10.1021\/acs.nanolett.9b02221","article-title":"Strain-tunable single photon sources in WSe2 monolayers","volume":"19","author":"Iff","year":"2019","journal-title":"Nano Lett."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib32","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"8037","DOI":"10.1021\/acs.nanolett.2c01289","article-title":"Nanomechanical spectroscopy of 2D materials","volume":"22","author":"Kirchhof","year":"2022","journal-title":"Nano Lett."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib33","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"926","DOI":"10.1038\/35016030","article-title":"Optical emission from a charge-tunable quantum ring","volume":"405","author":"Warburton","year":"2000","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"tdmadd414bib34","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"37","DOI":"10.1038\/nnano.2015.242","article-title":"Quantum emission from hexagonal boron nitride monolayers","volume":"11","author":"Tran","year":"2016","journal-title":"Nat. Nanotechnol."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib35","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/ncomms13409","article-title":"Cascaded emission of single photons from the biexciton in monolayered WSe2","volume":"7","author":"He","year":"2016","journal-title":"Nat. Commun."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib36","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"854","DOI":"10.1038\/s41565-020-0730-5","article-title":"Imaging strain-localized excitons in nanoscale bubbles of monolayer WSe2 at room temperature","volume":"15","author":"Darlington","year":"2020","journal-title":"Nat. Nanotechnol."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib37","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"7534","DOI":"10.1021\/acs.nanolett.9b03421","article-title":"Position and frequency control of strain-induced quantum emitters in WSe2 monolayers","volume":"19","author":"Kim","year":"2019","journal-title":"Nano Lett."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib38","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevB.98.115308","article-title":"Strain tuning of excitons in monolayer WSe2","volume":"98","author":"Aslan","year":"2018","journal-title":"Phys. Rev. B"},{"key":"tdmadd414bib39","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1135","DOI":"10.1021\/acsphotonics.0c00626","article-title":"Strain-correlated localized exciton energy in atomically thin semiconductors","volume":"7","author":"Moon","year":"2020","journal-title":"ACS Photon."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib40","first-page":"2562","article-title":"Strain effects on the electronic properties of monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides","volume":"8","author":"Conley","year":"2015","journal-title":"Nano Res."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib41","first-page":"4095","article-title":"Direct-to-indirect bandgap transition in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides","volume":"13","author":"Korn","year":"2013","journal-title":"Nano Lett."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib42","first-page":"10","article-title":"Strain engineering in two-dimensional semiconductors","volume":"1","author":"Fei","year":"2017","journal-title":"npj 2D Mater. Appl."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib43","article-title":"Bandgap modulation in transition metal dichalcogenides under tensile strain","volume":"12","author":"Wang","year":"2022","journal-title":"AIP Adv."},{"key":"tdmadd414bib44","first-page":"34561","article-title":"Electronic and optical properties of transition metal dichalcogenides under strain","volume":"4","author":"He","year":"2014","journal-title":"RSC Adv."}],"container-title":["2D Materials"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.1088\/2053-1583\/add414","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"am","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.1088\/2053-1583\/add414\/pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"am","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.1088\/2053-1583\/add414","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.1088\/2053-1583\/add414\/pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.1088\/2053-1583\/add414\/pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"am","intended-application":"syndication"},{"URL":"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.1088\/2053-1583\/add414\/pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"syndication"},{"URL":"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.1088\/2053-1583\/add414\/pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"am","intended-application":"similarity-checking"},{"URL":"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.1088\/2053-1583\/add414\/pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,27]],"date-time":"2025-05-27T08:40:58Z","timestamp":1748335258000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.1088\/2053-1583\/add414"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,14]]},"references-count":44,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,14]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,1]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1088\/2053-1583\/add414","relation":{},"ISSN":["2053-1583"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2053-1583","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,14]]},"assertion":[{"value":"Strain activation of localized states in WSe2","name":"article_title","label":"Article Title"},{"value":"2D Materials","name":"journal_title","label":"Journal Title"},{"value":"paper","name":"article_type","label":"Article Type"},{"value":"\u00a9 2025 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd","name":"copyright_information","label":"Copyright Information"},{"value":"2025-02-21","name":"date_received","label":"Date Received","group":{"name":"publication_dates","label":"Publication dates"}},{"value":"2025-05-05","name":"date_accepted","label":"Date Accepted","group":{"name":"publication_dates","label":"Publication dates"}},{"value":"2025-05-14","name":"date_epub","label":"Online publication date","group":{"name":"publication_dates","label":"Publication dates"}}]}}