Electrically-driven organic color-center-based single-photon sources and sensors

A single-photon source consisting essentially of:

• a. a semiconducting color center host which is a semiconducting carbon nanotube or graphene nanoribbon that includes an organic color center chemically introduced by covalently bonding an organic moiety into the sp2 carbon lattice of the color center host through formation of a C—C bond;
• b. a source and drain electrode in electrical contact with the semiconducting color center host to separately inject electrons and holes into the semiconducting color center host and the organic color center;
• and
• c. at least two gate electrodes, not electrically connected to the semiconducting color center host or the organic color center, positioned on opposite sides of the organic color center along the length of the semiconducting color center host;
• d. a stabilized voltage source for the source and drain electrodes and each gate electrode;
• and
• e. a current limiting circuit configured to regulate the current of electrons and holes across the organic color center to less than 1 nanoampere;
• wherein electrons and holes are separately injected into the organic color center to generate single photons.