Inverse-designed photon extractors for optically addressable defect qubits

TL;DR

This paper presents an inverse-designed photonic device that significantly enhances photon extraction efficiency from defect qubits in solid-state systems, enabling scalable quantum technologies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel inverse-design approach for creating hybrid gallium phosphide on diamond structures to improve photon collection from nitrogen-vacancy centers.

Findings

Achieved up to 14-fold broadband enhancement in photon extraction efficiency.

Device operation approaches the theoretical limit.

Demonstrated a compact hybrid gallium phosphide on diamond structure.

Abstract

Solid-state defect qubit systems with spin-photon interfaces show great promise for quantum information and metrology applications. Photon collection efficiency, however, presents a major challenge for defect qubits in high refractive index host materials. Inverse-design optimization of photonic devices enables unprecedented flexibility in tailoring critical parameters of a spin-photon interface including spectral response, photon polarization and collection mode. Further, the design process can incorporate additional constraints, such as fabrication tolerance and material processing limitations. Here we design and demonstrate a compact hybrid gallium phosphide on diamond inverse-design planar dielectric structure coupled to single near-surface nitrogen-vacancy centers formed by implantation and annealing. We observe device operation near the theoretical limit and measure up to a 14-fold broadband enhancement in photon extraction efficiency. We expect that such inverse-designed devices will enable realization of scalable arrays of single-photon emitters, rapid characterization of new quantum emitters, sensing and efficient heralded entanglement schemes.