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Integrated Optics: Devices, Materials, and Technologies

Emission enhancement of erbium in a hybrid waveguide platform

Nicholas A. Güsken, Ming Fu, Maximilian Zapf, Michael P. Nielsen, Alex S. Clark, Stefan Alexander Maier, Carsten Ronning, Mark L. Brongersma, Rupert F. Oulton

Published Mar 12, 2024• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report the broadband luminescence enhancement of erbium ions embedded in a non-resonant hybrid waveguide photon-emitter interface on silicon. The measured emission rate enhancement of > 300 is enabled by a large radiative Purcell factor across the spectrum in the telecommunications C-band. This enables the shortening of the lifetime of erbium from 3 ms to 8 μs, effectively providing brighter on-chip photon sources. The platform efficiently collects the photon emission of erbium in a single-mode waveguide and out-couples it to a low-loss photonic waveguide using a reverse nano-focusing method. This hybrid approach opens a large range of possible emitter-waveguide platform combinations for heterogeneous and hybrid quantum emitter integration, towards scalable on-chip quantum networks.

DOI
10.1117/12.3003604

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We report the broadband luminescence enhancement of erbium ions embedded in a non-resonant hybrid waveguide photon-emitter interface on silicon. The measured emission rate enhancement of > 300 is enabled by a large radiative Purcell factor across the spectrum in the telecommunications C-band. This enables the shortening of the lifetime of erbium from 3 ms to 8 μs, effectively providing brighter on-chip photon sources. The platform efficiently collects the photon emission of erbium in a single-mode waveguide and out-couples it to a low-loss photonic waveguide using a reverse nano-focusing method. This hybrid approach opens a large range of possible emitter-waveguide platform combinations for heterogeneous and hybrid quantum emitter integration, towards scalable on-chip quantum networks.
Abstract Since Purcell’s seminal report 75 years ago, electromagnetic resonators have been used to control light-matter interactions to make brighter radiation sources and unleash unprecedented control over quantum states of light and matter. Indeed, optical resonators such as microcavities and plasmonic antennas offer excellent control but only over a limited spectral range. Strategies to mutually tune and match emission and resonator frequency are often required, which is intricate and precludes the possibility of enhancing multiple transitions simultaneously. In this letter, we report a strong radiative emission rate enhancement of Er 3+ -ions across the telecommunications C-band in a single plasmonic waveguide based on the Purcell effect. Our gap waveguide uses a reverse nanofocusing approach to efficiently enhance, extract and guide emission from the nanoscale to a photonic waveguide while keeping plasmonic losses at a minimum. Remarkably, the large and broadband Purcell enhancement allows us to resolve Stark-split electric dipole transitions, which are typically only observed under cryogenic conditions. Simultaneous radiative emission enhancement of multiple quantum states is of great interest for photonic quantum networks and on-chip data communications.
A scalable platform for on-chip optical quantum networks will rely on standard top-down nanofabrication techniques and solid-state emitters with long coherence times. We present a new hybrid platform that integrates amorphous silicon photonic waveguides and microresonators fabricated on top of a yttrium orthosilicate substrate doped with erbium ions. The quality factor of one such resonator was measured to exceed 100,000 and the ensemble cooperativity was measured to be 0.54. The resonator-coupled ions exhibited spontaneous emission rate enhancement and increased coupling to the input field, as required for further development of on-chip quantum light-matter interfaces.
Solid-state spin-based quantum systems have emerged as popular platforms for quantum networking applications due to their optical interfaces, their long-lived quantum memories, and their natural compatibility with semiconductor manufacturing. Photonic crystal cavities are often used to enhance radiative emission; however, fabrication of the necessary subwavelength cavities is typically limited to small batch electron beam lithography. In this work, we demonstrate high quality factor, small mode volume nanobeam cavities fabricated on a scalable silicon photonic foundry platform. The foundry fabricated cavities are then interfaced with single erbium ions through backend deposition of TiO 2 thin films lightly doped with erbium. Single ion lifetime measurements indicate Purcell enhancement up to about 500, thereby demonstrating a route toward manufacturable deterministic single photon sources in the telecom C-band.
The interaction of single quantum emitters with an optical cavity enables the realization of efficient spin-photon interfaces, an essential resource for quantum networks. The dynamical control of the spontaneous emission rate of quantum emitters in cavities has important implications in quantum technologies, e.g., for shaping the emitted photons' waveform or for driving coherently the optical transition while preventing photon emission. Here we demonstrate the dynamical control of the Purcell enhanced emission of a small ensemble of erbium ions doped into a nanoparticle. By embedding the nanoparticles into a fully tunable high finesse fiber based optical microcavity, we demonstrate a median Purcell factor of 15 for the ensemble of ions. We also show that we can dynamically control the Purcell enhanced emission by tuning the cavity on and out of resonance, by controlling its length with sub-nanometer precision on a time scale more than two orders of magnitude faster than the natural lifetime of the erbium ions. This capability opens prospects for the realization of efficient nanoscale quantum interfaces between solid-state spins and single telecom photons with controllable waveform, for non-destructive detection of photonic qubits, and for the realization of quantum gates between rare-earth ion qubits coupled to an optical cavity.
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.