Resonance fluorescence and indistinguishable photons from a coherently driven B centre in hBN

Optically active defects in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) have become amongst the most attractive single-photon emitters in the solid state, owing to their high-quality photophysical properties, combined with the unlimited possibilities of integration offered by the host van der Waals material. In particular, the B centres, with their narrow linewidth, low wavelength spread and controllable positioning, have raised a particular interest for integrated quantum photonics. However, to date, either their excitation or their detection has been performed non-resonantly due to the difficulty of rejecting the backreflected laser light at the same wavelength, thereby preventing to take full benefit from their high coherence in quantum protocols. Here, we make use of narrow-linewidth emitters integrated in a hybrid metal-dielectric structure to implement cross-polarisation laser rejection. This allows us to observe resonantly scattered photons, with associated experimental signatures of optical coherence in both continuous-wave (cw) and pulsed regimes, respectively the Mollow triplet and Hong-Ou-Mandel interference from zero-phonon-line emission. The two-photon interference visibilities of $$0.9{3}_{-0.21}^{+0.07}$$ and $$0.9{2}_{-0.26}^{+0.08}$$ we measured for two emitters demonstrate the potential of B centres in hBN for applications to integrated quantum information. Single-photon sources in van der Waals materials offer new perspectives of integration for quantum information applications. Here, the authors implement resonance fluorescence of a single colour centre in hBN, a quantum optics regime that simultaneously allows for emitter coherent control and generation of indistinguishable photons.