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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics

Telecom Spin-Photon Quantum Interface Based on Silicon Nanophotonics

Christina Wicker, Yizhong Huang, Hong Wei Qiao, Tian Zhong

Published Jan 1, 2021• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We develop a telecom-band nanophotonic spin-photon interface with erbium dopants in silicon. We perform photoluminescence spectroscopy of Er3+ in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers and measure Purcell enhancement, optical linewidths and transition dipoles in nanophotonic cavities. Comments and questions should be directed to Tian Zhong (tel: +1 773.834.4237, e-mail: tzh@uchicago.edu ).

DOI
10.1364/cleo_qels.2021.fth1p.6

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•Sep 16, 2025•0 citations
We develop a telecom-band nanophotonic spin-photon interface with erbium dopants in silicon. We perform photoluminescence spectroscopy of Er3+ in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers and measure Purcell enhancement, optical linewidths and transition dipoles in nanophotonic cavities. Comments and questions should be directed to Tian Zhong (tel: +1 773.834.4237, e-mail: tzh@uchicago.edu ).
Silicon is an attractive host for scalable quantum photonics, but the absence of bright telecom-band emitters with optically addressable spin states has limited its use for spin-photon interfaces. Here we demonstrate the Al1-center, an aluminum--carbon defect in silicon, as a bright waveguide-integrated single-photon emitter with a ground-state spin. Using isotopically purified silicon-on-insulator nanophotonic devices, we isolate individual Al1-centers and observe high-purity single-photon emission with g(2)(0)=0.04g^{(2)}(0)=0.04g(2)(0)=0.04 without background subtraction. Time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy reveals a fast excited-state lifetime of 135 ns, nearly an order of magnitude shorter than the benchmark provided by the well-studied T-center. Resonant photoluminescence excitation measurements further resolve the zero-phonon transition and reveal a narrow homogeneous linewidth reaching 47 MHz, threefold narrower than the T-center under comparable temperature. Through magneto-optical spectroscopy, we resolve the spin-dependent transitions of the bound-exciton manifold and achieve spin-selective optical pumping, fulfilling the prerequisite for quantum state initialization and readout. These results establish the Al1-center as a bright telecom-band spin-photon interface in silicon photonics and introduce a promising platform for integrated quantum networks.
Individual spins that are coupled to telecommunication photons offer unique promise for distributed quantum information processing once a coherent and efficient spin–photon interface can be fabricated at scale. We implement such an interface by integrating erbium dopants into a nanophotonic silicon resonator. We achieve spin-resolved excitation of individual emitters with <0.1GHz spectral diffusion linewidth. Upon resonant driving, we observe optical Rabi oscillations and single-photon emission with a 78-fold Purcell enhancement. Our results establish a promising platform for quantum networks.
Rare-earth ion defects in solid-state hosts have emerged as a promising candidate for emissive quantum memories owing to their inherent spin–photon interface and long optical and spin coherence times. Erbium (Er3+) in particular has optical transitions in the C-band making it well suited to the use of existing telecom technology infrastructure. In this work, we present a platform to integrate rare-earth ions into standard silicon photonic circuits. Erbium is co-deposited in CMOS-compatible TiO2 host films onto SOI and patterned into high Purcell factor photonic crystal cavities. Purcell factors in excess of 500 are observed and transient spectral hole burning and photoluminescence excitation scans reveal homogeneous linewidths below 15 MHz. Additionally, we show that photonic wirebonding can provide a solution for low-loss and thermally stable fiber-to-chip coupling.
Erbium (Er3+) emitters are relevant for optical applications due to their narrow emission line directly in the telecom C-band due to the 4I13/2 → 4I15/2 transition at 1.54 μm. Additionally, they are promising candidates for future quantum technologies when embedded in thin film silicon-on-insulator (SOI) to achieve fabrication scalability and CMOS compatibility. In this paper we integrate Er3+ emitters in SOI metasurfaces made of closely spaced arrays of nanodisks, to study their spontaneous emission via room and cryogenic temperature confocal microscopy, off-resonance and in-resonance photoluminescence excitation at room temperature and time-resolved spectroscopy. This work demonstrates the possibility to adopt CMOS-compatible and fabrication-scalable metasurfaces for controlling and improving the collection efficiency of the spontaneous emission from the Er3+ transition in SOI and that they could be adopted in similar technologically advanced materials.
Erbium (Er3+) emitters are relevant for optical applications due to their narrow emission line directly in the telecom C-band due to the 4I13/2 →4I15/2 transition at 1.54 μm. Additionally they are promising candidates for future quantum technologies when embedded in thin-film silicon-on-insulator (SOI) to achieve fabrication scalability and CMOS compatibility. In this paper we integrate Er3+ emitters in SOI metasurfaces made of closely spaced array of nanodisks, to study their spontaneous emission via room and cryogenic temperature confocal microscopy, off-resonance and in-resonance photoluminescence excitation at room temperature and time resolved spectroscopy. This work demonstrates the possibility to adopt CMOS-compatible and fabrication scalable metasurfaces for controlling and improving the collection efficiency of the spontaneous emission from the Er3+ transition in SOI and could be adopted in similar technologically advanced materials.