Bright and photostable single-photon emitter in silicon carbide

TL;DR

This paper reports a stable, room-temperature single-photon emitter in silicon carbide with high photon emission rates, narrow spectral lines, and potential for scalable quantum photonic applications.

Contribution

The discovery of a photostable, visible-spectrum single-photon emitter in 4H silicon carbide with high emission rates and narrow spectral features at room temperature.

Findings

Photon counts exceeding 2 million per second.

Emitter exhibits two orthogonally polarized states.

Zero phonon line narrower than 0.1 nm, accounting for over 30% of emission.

Abstract

Single-photon sources are of paramount importance in quantum communication, quantum computation, and quantum metrology. In particular, there is great interest in realizing scalable solid-state platforms that can emit triggered photons on demand to achieve scalable nanophotonic networks. We report on a visible-spectrum single-photon emitter in 4H silicon carbide (SiC). The emitter is photostable at room and low temperatures, enabling photon counts per second in excess of 2$\times$10$^6$ from unpatterned bulk SiC. It exists in two orthogonally polarized states, which have parallel absorption and emission dipole orientations. Low-temperature measurements reveal a narrow zero phonon line (linewidth $<0.1~$nm) that accounts for $>30$% of the total photoluminescence spectrum.