Room-temperature solid state quantum emitters in the telecom range

TL;DR

This paper reports the development of a stable, room-temperature solid-state single photon emitter operating at telecom wavelengths, crucial for quantum communication and computing, with high brightness and purity.

Contribution

It introduces a novel, robust, room-temperature solid-state SPE in GaN with telecom wavelength emission, filling a key gap in quantum technology applications.

Findings

High photon purity (~5% multiphoton events)

Record-high brightness (~1.5 MHz)

Emission from localized defects in GaN

Abstract

On demand single photon emitters (SPEs) play a key role across a broad range of quantum technologies, including quantum computation, quantum simulation, quantum metrology and quantum communications. In quantum networks and quantum key distribution protocols, where photons are employed as flying qubits, telecom wavelength operation is preferred due to the reduced fibre loss. However, despite the tremendous efforts to develop various triggered SPE platforms, a robust source of triggered SPEs operating at room temperature and the telecom wavelength is still missing. Here we report a triggered, optically stable, room temperature solid state SPE operating at telecom wavelengths. The emitters exhibit high photon purity (~ 5% multiphoton events) and a record-high brightness of ~ 1.5 MHz. The emission is attributed to localized defects in a gallium nitride (GaN) crystal. The high performance SPEs embedded in a technologically mature semiconductor are promising for on-chip quantum simulators and practical quantum communication technologies.