The unrivaled maturity of its nanofabrication makes silicon a promising hardware platform for quantum information processing. To this end, efficient single-photon sources and spin-photon interfaces have been implemented by integrating color centers or erbium dopants into nanophotonic resonators. However, the optical emission frequencies in this approach are subject to temporal fluctuations on both long and short timescales, which hinders the development of quantum applications. Here, we investigate this limitation and demonstrate that it can be alleviated by integrating the emitters into Fabry-Perot instead of nanophotonic resonators. Their larger optical mode volume enables both increasing the distance to crystal surfaces and operating at a lower dopant concentration, which reduces implantation-induced crystal damage and interactions between emitters. As a result, we observe a fivefold reduction of the spectral diffusion linewidth down to 4.0(2) MHz. Calculations and experimental investigations of isotopically purified 28-Si crystals suggest that the remaining spectral instability is caused by laser-induced electric-field fluctuations. In direct comparison with a nanophotonic device, the instability is significantly reduced at the same intracavity power, enabling a tenfold increase of the optical coherence time up to 20(1) microseconds. These findings represent a key step towards spectrally stable spin-photon interfaces in silicon and their potential applications in quantum networking and distributed quantum information processing.
Single photons enable the distribution of quantum information over large distances and thus play a major role in quantum technologies such as communication and computing. Solid-state emitters are practical and efficient sources of single photons that can be manufactured in large numbers. When combined with a spin, the resulting spin-photon interfaces can store quantum states for extended periods and serve as the basis for quantum networks and repeaters. Among the many host materials explored over the past few decades, silicon stands out for its advanced nanofabrication, the maturity of its integrated photonics and microelectronics, and its high isotopic purity, which leads to exceptionally long spin coherence. These properties position silicon single-photon emitters and spin-photon interfaces among the most promising hardware platforms for implementing quantum networks and distributed quantum information processors. This review summarizes the current state of the art and open challenges towards coherent single-photon sources and scalable spin-photon interfaces based on color centers and erbium dopants in nanophotonic silicon structures.
Spin-carrying single-photon emitters operating in the telecommunication C-band (1530-1565nm) are prime candidates for integrated spin-photon interfaces, offering seamless compatibility with existing fiber-optic infrastructure, an essential component for future quantum networks. In this context, erbium-dopants (
Er3+) are particularly compelling due to their exceptional emitter properties, including small spectral diffusion and long spin coherence times. However, their low C-band photon-emission rate and operation at cryogenic temperatures has limited the realization of this technology.
In this work, we demonstrate fully integrated single-photon emission from an ion implanted
Er3+-embedded into a 4H-silicon-carbide-on-insulator (4H-SiCOI) microring resonator operating at room temperature. By optimizing the mode overlap between the resonator and the
Er3+-defect, we achieved a $\sim
70\times$ Purcell enhancement and recorded small spectral diffusion of $\sim$54 MHz. We further characterize the
Er3+ single photon emission via photon correlation g
(2)-histograms and investigate its performance under varying magnetic-field, demonstrating Zeeman splitting on single emitters.
Quantum networks and modular quantum computers require efficient spin-photon interfaces, often realized using optical resonators that enhance radiative decay on a desired transition. However, this requires small mode volumes and high quality factors, which limits multiplexing capacity and demands precise frequency tuning. Here, we demonstrate an alternative approach that circumvents these bottlenecks for upscaling. Using a W1 silicon photonic crystal waveguide with a tailored photonic bandgap, we selectively inhibit unwanted decay pathways, thereby redirecting emission to the desired transition. This enables efficient photon collection over a large frequency range, allowing the resolution and individual addressing of tens of erbium dopants. Their lifetimes are preserved, or even increased, compared to bulk material. The extended mode volume of the devices enables the use of lower dopant concentrations, thereby improving emitter coherence. Our approach can be combined with Purcell enhancement and applied to other spin-qubit platforms, opening intriguing perspectives for photonic quantum technologies.
Implementation of large-scale quantum networks have the potential to augment the capabilities of existing quantum information technologies. By linking quantum processors over photonic channels, future quantum networks could enable applications such as remote quantum sensing, distributed quantum computing, and secure quantum communication. Atomic defects in solids are readily integrated with photonic structures, making them promising candidates for use in quantum networking devices. In particular, the silicon material platform holds great promise due to the technologically mature silicon electronic and photonic industries. The T center defects in silicon possess telecom O-band optical transitions, as well as long-lived electronic and nuclear spins, making it the focus of particular interest. These spin and optical properties of single T centers, together with their accessibility to the existing integrated electronic and photonic technologies, opening the door to modular long-distance quantum networking technologies built on the T center platform. This work outlines the integration of single T centers with a silicon photonic crystal cavity; we observe cavity-enhanced fluorescence emission, resulting in a decay rate enhancement factor of F = 6.89 compared to the bulk emission rate. Through the use of silicon photonic circuits and an angle-polished fiber for light coupling, we achieve a maximum zero phonon line photon outcoupling rate of 73.3 kHz. The design and fabrication of the nanophotonic cavity used in experiment is detailed. This work represents a major step towards use of the silicon T center as a telecom spin-photon interface in future quantum networking applications.