Samples for single-emitter spectroscopy are usually prepared by spin-coating a dilute solution of emitters on a microscope cover slip of silicate based glass (such as quartz). Here, we show that both borosilicate glass and quartz contain intrinsic defect colour centres that fluoresce when excited at 532 nm. In a microscope image the defect emission is indistinguishable from spin-coated emitters. The emission spectrum is characterised by multiple peaks, most likely due to coupling to a silica vibration with an energy of 160-180 meV. The defects are single-photon emitters, do not blink, and have photoluminescence lifetimes of a few nanoseconds. Photoluminescence from such defects may previously have been misinterpreted as originating from single nanocrystal quantum dots.
@article{arxiv.1509.07262,
title = {Non-blinking single-photon emitters in silica},
author = {Freddy T. Rabouw and Nicole M. B. Cogan and Anne C. Berends and Ward van der Stam and Daniel Vanmaekelbergh and A. Femius Koenderink and Todd D. Krauss and Celso de Mello Donegá},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1509.07262},
year = {2016}
}