Wafer-Scale Integration of Freestanding Photonic Devices with Color Centers in Silicon Carbide

TL;DR

This paper presents a wafer-scale fabrication process for integrating photonic devices with color centers in silicon carbide, enabling scalable quantum photonics applications while preserving the emitters' properties.

Contribution

It introduces a novel ion beam etching process for large-scale silicon carbide photonic device fabrication that maintains quantum emitter properties.

Findings

Successful fabrication of 5-inch wafer-scale triangular photonic devices in silicon carbide.

Maintained optical properties of color centers after etching process.

Achieved low variability in etch rate and angle, supporting scalable manufacturing.

Abstract

Color center platforms have been at the forefront of quantum nanophotonics for applications in quantum networking, computing, and sensing. However, large-scale deployment of this technology has been stifled by a lack of ability to integrate photonic devices at scale while maintaining the properties of quantum emitters. We address this challenge in silicon carbide which has both commercially available wafer-scale substrates and is a host to color centers with desirable optical and spin properties. Using ion beam etching at an angle, we develop a 5-inch wafer process for the fabrication of triangular cross-section photonic devices in bulk 4H-SiC. The developed process has a variability in etch rate and etch angle of 5.4% and 2.9%, respectively. Furthermore, the integrated color centers maintain their optical properties after the etch, thus achieving the nanofabrication goal of wafer-scale nanofabrication in quantum-grade silicon carbide.