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IEEE/LEOS Summer Topical Meetings

Silicon-Germanium Light Sources for Commodity-Scale Quantum Key Distribution

Florian Honz, W. Boxleitner, Michael Hentschel, Valeria Saggio, Bernhard Schrenk

Published Jul 1, 2026• 0 citations
Publisher
DOI
10.1109/sum69529.2026.11660149

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•Jan 1, 2018•0 citations
Quantum key distribution (QKD) allows the secure transmission of encryption keys in the dawning age of quantum computers. However, despite photonic integration efforts, the size and complexity of current QKD systems remains a roadblock for practical deployment in cost-sensitive applications. Here we show a monolithic integrated QKD transmitter that exclusively builds on silicon photonics. We introduce a germanium-on-silicon light emitter acting as source for a co-integrated quantum state encoder, to generate a secure key over a 45.9 km field-installed fiber link. On top of this, we demonstrate the broadband operation of our QKD transmitter by generating keys over 32 wavelength channels, making it an integrated colorless QKD transmitter with full C-band coverage. Employing monolithic silicon technology paves the way towards fully integrated optoelectronic QKD transmitters, enabling a drastic reduction of size and cost while benefiting from the maturity and mass production capabilities of complementary metal–oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology. Moreover, omitting the need for rare and costly III-V semiconductor materials to generate light can drastically reduce the overburdening assembly and packaging requirements inherent to optoelectronics, potentially enabling QKD to finally enter new application domains closer to the consumer market.
Solid-state single-photon sources are the central blocks for many scalable quantum applications including quantum computing, quantum key distributions, and quantum simulations. Over the years, diverse quantum emitters have been studied. This thesis endeavored investigations into single-photon sources in diamond, silicon carbide and gallium nitride in three directions: Firstly, identification of the single-photon sources that have never been reported before and fabrication technique for scalable single germanium vacancy centers in diamond. Telecom wavelength single photon sources have been found in both gallium nitride and silicon carbide. More importantly, those emitters work even at room temperature and are promising for quantum key distribution applications in the future. Secondly, the spin properties study of the single silicon vacancy in diamond: the silicon vacancy optical transition has been coherently controlled in the work. The optical Rabi oscillations in the time domain have been observed. The ultrafast spin control of the silicon vacancy has been also achieved. Thirdly, quantum applications of the divacancy spins in silicon carbide: nano-scale thermometry based on the quantum control of the divacancy spin in silicon carbide has been introduced. Especially, we found a self-protected effect that the transverse strain can protect the spin from the local magnetic field and enables longer coherence time. Finally, some possible directions have been discussed.