Inhibited radiative decay enhances single-photon emitters

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel photonic crystal waveguide design that suppresses unwanted radiative decay channels in erbium dopants, enabling efficient, scalable single-photon emitters with preserved or extended lifetimes and large spatial separation.

Contribution

It introduces a method to inhibit all but the desired emission channels in erbium dopants using photonic bandgap engineering, bypassing the need for high-Q resonators.

Findings

Emission channeled to the desired transition with high efficiency

Dopant lifetimes preserved or extended over a broad spectral range

Large spatial separation of emitters avoids coherence-limiting interactions

Abstract

Quantum networks and the modular scaling of quantum computers require efficient spin-photon interfaces. This can be achieved with optical resonators that increase the local density of states, thereby enhancing the radiative decay of emitters on a specific transition. However, small mode volumes and high quality factors are required in this approach, which restricts the multiplexing capacity and necessitates precise tuning of the resonator frequency. Here, we demonstrate an alternative method that avoids these bottlenecks for up-scaling. Instead of strongly enhancing the emission on a selected transition, we suppress all other radiative decay channels by tailoring the photonic bandgap of a W1 silicon photonic crystal waveguide. In such a device, we can spectrally resolve and individually address tens of erbium dopants. We find that their emission is channeled to the desired transition, ensuring efficient collection. At the same time, their lifetimes are preserved or even extended compared to the bulk in a broad spectral range. Furthermore, the extended mode volume facilitates a low dopant concentration and thus a large spatial separation between the emitters, avoiding unwanted interactions that would limit their coherence. The demonstrated approach of inhibiting unwanted spontaneous emission can be combined with Purcell enhancement and applied to other leading spin-qubit platforms. It thus opens intriguing perspectives for photonic quantum technologies.