Hybrid quantum nanophotonic devices for coupling to rare-earth ions
Evan Miyazono, Alex Hartz, Tian Zhong +1 more
With an assortment of narrow line-width transitions spanning the visible and IR spectrum and long spin coherence times, rare-earth doped crystals are the leading material system for solid-state quantum memories. Integrating these materials in an on-chip optical platform would create opportunities for highly integrated light-matter interfaces for quantum communication and quantum computing. Nano-photonic resonators with high quality factors and small mode volumes are required for efficient on-chip coupling to the small dipole moment of rare-earth ion transitions. However, direct fabrication of optical cavities in these crystals with current nanofabrication techniques is difficult and unparallelized, as either exotic etch chemistries or physical milling processes are required. We fabricated hybrid devices by mechanically transferring a nanoscale membrane of gallium arsenide (GaAs) onto a neodymium-doped yttrium silicon oxide (Y2SiO5) crystal and then using electron beam lithography and standard III-V dry etching to pattern nanobeam photonic crystal cavities and ring resonator cavities, a technique that is easily adapted to other frequency ranges for arbitrary dopants in any rare earth host system. Single crystalline GaAs was chosen for its low loss and high refractive index at the transition wavelength. We demonstrated the potential to evanescently couple between the cavity field and the 883 nm 4I9/2- 4F3/2 transition of nearby neodymium impurities in the host crystal by examining transmission spectra through a waveguide coupled to the resonator with a custom-built confocal microscope. The prospects and requirements for using this system for scalable quantum networks are discussed.
Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE•Mar 4, 2015•1 citation