Bright room temperature single photon source at telecom range in cubic silicon carbide

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of bright, stable single-photon emitters in cubic silicon carbide that operate at telecom wavelengths and are suitable for quantum communication at room temperature.

Contribution

It demonstrates the existence of photostable, bright single-photon emitters in 3C-SiC emitting in the telecom range, advancing silicon carbide's potential in quantum technologies.

Findings

Emitters are photostable and bright at room temperature.

Count rate of emitters is approximately MHz.

Silicon carbide's fabrication friendliness supports future quantum applications.

Abstract

Single photon emitters (SPEs) play an important role in a number of quantum information tasks such as quantum key distributions. In these protocols, telecom wavelength photons are desired due to their low transmission loss in optical fibers. In this paper, we present a study of bright single-photon emitters in cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC) emitting in the telecom range. We find that these emitters are photostable and bright at room temperature with a count rate of ~ MHz. Together with the fact that SiC is a growth and fabrication-friendly material, our result may pave the way for its future application in quantum communication technology applications.