Isolation of individual Er quantum emitters in anatase TiO$_2$ on Si photonics

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the optical isolation of single Er$^{3+}$ ions in CMOS-compatible TiO$_2$ thin films on silicon photonics, advancing scalable quantum photonics for quantum internet applications.

Contribution

It presents the first demonstration of isolating single Er$^{3+}$ ions in TiO$_2$ films integrated on silicon photonics, enabling scalable quantum photonics devices.

Findings

Successful isolation of single Er$^{3+}$ ions in TiO$_2$ films

Integration of Er$^{3+}$ doped films with silicon photonics platform

Progress toward scalable quantum photonics for quantum networks

Abstract

Defects and dopant atoms in solid state materials are a promising platform for realizing single photon sources and quantum memories, which are the basic building blocks of quantum repeaters needed for long distance quantum networks. In particular, trivalent erbium (Er$^{3+}$) is of interest because it couples C-band telecom optical transitions with a spin-based memory platform. In order to produce quantum repeaters at the scale required for a quantum internet, it is imperative to integrate these necessary building blocks with mature and scalable semiconductor processes. In this work, we demonstrate the optical isolation of single Er$^{3+}$ ions in CMOS-compatible titanium dioxide (TiO$_2$) thin films monolithically integrated on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) photonics platform. Our results demonstrate a first step toward the realization of a monolithically integrated and scalable quantum photonics package based on Er$^{3+}$ doped thin films.