Intrinsic defects in silicon carbide LED as a perspective room temperature single photon source in near infrared

TL;DR

This paper reports on silicon carbide LEDs with intrinsic defects that emit in visible and near-infrared at room temperature, offering a promising platform for electrically driven single photon sources in quantum communication.

Contribution

The study demonstrates a fabrication method for SiC LEDs with intrinsic defects that emit at room temperature, suitable for single photon source applications in quantum tech.

Findings

Room temperature electroluminescence in visible and NIR

Potential for low or single defect level photon emission

Uses standard semiconductor manufacturing techniques

Abstract

Generation of single photons has been demonstrated in several systems. However, none of them satisfies all the conditions, e.g. room temperature functionality, telecom wavelength operation, high efficiency, as required for practical applications. Here, we report the fabrication of light emitting diodes (LEDs) based on intrinsic defects in silicon carbide (SiC). To fabricate our devices we used a standard semiconductor manufacturing technology in combination with high-energy electron irradiation. The room temperature electroluminescence (EL) of our LEDs reveals two strong emission bands in visible and near infrared (NIR), associated with two different intrinsic defects. As these defects can potentially be generated at a low or even single defect level, our approach can be used to realize electrically driven single photon source for quantum telecommunication and information processing.