Bright and Purcell-enhanced single photon emission from a silicon G center

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a significant enhancement in single photon emission from silicon G centers by coupling them to nanophotonic cavities, achieving the fastest emission rate in silicon and paving the way for scalable quantum photonic devices.

Contribution

The work introduces Purcell enhancement of silicon G centers using nanophotonic cavities, significantly increasing brightness and emission rate for quantum applications.

Findings

Purcell factor greater than 31 achieved

Emission rate of 0.97 ns for single photons

Order of magnitude brightness improvement

Abstract

Silicon G centers show significant promise as single photon sources in a scalable silicon platform. But these color centers have large non-radiative decay and a low Debye-Waller factor, limiting their usability in quantum applications. In this work, we demonstrate bright Purcell-enhanced emission from a silicon G center by coupling it to a nanophotonic cavity. The nanobeam cavity enhances the spontaneous emission rate of a single G center by a factor of 6, corresponding to a Purcell factor greater than 31 when accounting for decay into the phonon sideband. We obtain a spontaneous emission rate of 0.97 ns, which is the fastest single photon emission rate reported in silicon. With this radiative enhancement, we achieve an order of magnitude improvement in emitter brightness compared to previously reported values. These results pave the way for scalable quantum light sources on a silicon photonic chip.