Engineering telecom single-photon emitters in silicon for scalable quantum photonics

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the creation of high-brightness, stable single-photon emitters in silicon-on-insulator wafers, enabling scalable quantum photonic devices compatible with existing silicon technology.

Contribution

It introduces a method to produce and isolate telecom-band single-photon emitters in silicon, linked to carbon-related color centers, with potential for integrated quantum photonic platforms.

Findings

Emitters with up to 10^5 counts/sec brightness

Emitters show high spectral stability over days

Emitters are linked to carbon-related G centers in silicon

Abstract

We create and isolate single-photon emitters with a high brightness approaching $10^5$ counts per second in commercial silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers. The emission occurs in the infrared spectral range with a spectrally narrow zero phonon line in the telecom O-band and shows a high photostability even after days of continuous operation. The origin of the emitters is attributed to one of the carbon-related color centers in silicon, the so-called G center, allowing purification with the $^{12}$C and $^{28}$Si isotopes. Furthermore, we envision a concept of a highly-coherent scalable quantum photonic platform, where single-photon sources, waveguides and detectors are integrated on a SOI chip. Our results provide a route towards the implementation of quantum processors, repeaters and sensors compatible with the present-day silicon technology.