Atomically confined spins are emerging as active components in quantum optoelectronic devices such as quantum bits and sensors. However, interrogating single spins at atomic length-scales remains a sizeable challenge, limited by diffraction in conventional optics. Here we show that the highly-local excitation provided by injecting energetic charge carriers from the atomically sharp probe of a scanning tunneling microscope can trigger single-photon emission from individual atomic vacancy centers in a layered semiconductor. With an effective spatial resolution of <1 nm, we show that the captured light closely mirrors the orbital symmetry of the bound-state wavefunction of the vacancy center while photon correlation measurements confirm single-photon emission, as reflected in clear photon anti-bunching signatures. Our results constitute an important step toward the realization of an electrically addressable single-atom quantum light source and solid-state spinphoton interface, addressed at the atomic-scale.
@article{arxiv.2602.23931,
title = {Orbitally resolved single-photon emission from an individual atomic vacancy center in a semiconductor},
author = {Gagandeep Singh and Xiaodan Lyu and Bi Qi Chong and Ryan Li Yen Tang and Rejaul SK and Yande Que and Ranjith Shivajirao and Thasneem Aliyar and Radha Krishnan and Junxiang Jia and Michael S. Fuhrer and Teck Seng Koh and Weibo Gao and Bent Weber},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.23931},
year = {2026}
}