End-to-end physics-based modeling of laser-activated color centers in silicon

TL;DR

This paper presents a comprehensive first-principles model for laser-activated color centers in silicon, enabling controlled, in-situ creation with highly similar spectral features, advancing quantum photonic device integration.

Contribution

It introduces an end-to-end theoretical model for color center formation, including laser activation control and spectral property estimation, facilitating scalable quantum photonic applications.

Findings

Achieved inhomogeneous broadening estimation down to 16 GHz in silicon.

Demonstrated laser writing of color centers in photonic crystal cavities.

Enabled deterministic activation of color centers in nanophotonic devices.

Abstract

Color centers are among the most promising candidates for quantum information processing. Central requirements for their practical applications include controlled and efficient local activation in nanophotonic devices and identical spectral features. However, producing color centers in a controlled and reliable way is inherently challenging due to the lack of comprehensive theoretical insights into their formation and the difficulty of streamlining the generation process for rapid in-situ optimization. We address these challenges by developing an end-to-end first-principles model that captures the underlying formation process of color centers. Emitters are activated through laser annealing, which allows for in-situ creation and the possibility of model-based control. Notably, our model enables the estimation of the emitters' inhomogeneous broadening down to 16 GHz in bare silicon, which translates into the creation of emitters with highly similar spectral properties. Finally, we address the challenge of in-situ deterministic activation of color centers in nanophotonic devices by going beyond bare silicon and demonstrating successful laser writing in photonic crystal optical cavities. These results lay the foundation for deterministic and large-scale integration of color centers within quantum photonic platforms.