We create and isolate single-photon emitters with a high brightness approaching $10^5$ counts per second in commercial silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers. The emission occurs in the infrared spectral range with a spectrally narrow zero phonon line in the telecom O-band and shows a high photostability even after days of continuous operation. The origin of the emitters is attributed to one of the carbon-related color centers in silicon, the so-called G center, allowing purification with the $^{12}$C and $^{28}$Si isotopes. Furthermore, we envision a concept of a highly-coherent scalable quantum photonic platform, where single-photon sources, waveguides and detectors are integrated on a SOI chip. Our results provide a route towards the implementation of quantum processors, repeaters and sensors compatible with the present-day silicon technology.
On demand single photon emitters (SPEs) play a key role across a broad range of quantum technologies, including quantum computation, quantum simulation, quantum metrology and quantum communications. In quantum networks and quantum key distribution protocols, where photons are employed as flying qubits, telecom wavelength operation is preferred due to the reduced fibre loss. However, despite the tremendous efforts to develop various triggered SPE platforms, a robust source of triggered SPEs operating at room temperature and the telecom wavelength is still missing. Here we report a triggered, op…
Long-distance entanglement distribution is a vital capability for quantum technologies. An outstanding practical milestone towards this aim is the identification of a suitable matter-photon interface which possesses, simultaneously, long coherence lifetimes and efficient telecommunications-band optical access. In this work, alongside its sister publication, we report upon the T center, a silicon defect with spin-selective optical transitions at 1326 nm in the telecommunications O-band. Here we show that the T center in $^{28}$Si offers electron and nuclear spin lifetimes beyond a millisecond a…
Single photon emitters (SPEs) play an important role in a number of quantum information tasks such as quantum key distributions. In these protocols, telecom wavelength photons are desired due to their low transmission loss in optical fibers. In this paper, we present a study of bright single-photon emitters in cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC) emitting in the telecom range. We find that these emitters are photostable and bright at room temperature with a count rate of ~ MHz. Together with the fact that SiC is a growth and fabrication-friendly material, our result may pave the way for its future a…
Efficient fiber-based long-distance quantum communication via quantum repeaters relies on deterministic single-photon sources at telecom wavelengths, with the potential to exploit the existing world-wide infrastructures. For upscaling the experimental complexity in quantum networking, two-photon interference (TPI) of remote non-classical emitters in the low-loss telecom bands is of utmost importance. With respect to TPI of distinct emitters, several experiments have been conducted, e.g., using trapped atoms [Beugnon2006], ions [Maunz2007], NV-centers [Bernien2012, Sipahigil2012], SiV-centers […
Given its unrivaled potential of integration and scalability, silicon is likely to become a key platform for large-scale quantum technologies. Individual electron-encoded artificial atoms either formed by impurities or quantum dots have emerged as a promising solution for silicon-based integrated quantum circuits. However, single qubits featuring an optical interface needed for large-distance exchange of information have not yet been isolated in such a prevailing semiconductor. Here we show the isolation of single optically-active point defects in a commercial silicon-on-insulator wafer implan…
Scalable quantum photonic systems require efficient single photon sources coupled to integrated photonic devices. Solid-state quantum emitters can generate single photons with high efficiency, while silicon photonic circuits can manipulate them in an integrated device structure. Combining these two material platforms could, therefore, significantly increase the complexity of integrated quantum photonic devices. Here, we demonstrate hybrid integration of solid-state quantum emitters to a silicon photonic device. We develop a pick-and-place technique that can position epitaxially grown InAs/InP …
Photonic crystal (PhC) cavities are promising candidates for Si photonics integrated circuits due to their ultrahigh quality (Q)-factors and small mode volumes. Here, we demonstrate a novel concept of a one-dimensional hybrid III-V/Si PhC cavity which exploits a combination of standard silicon-on-insulator technology and active III-V materials. Using template-assisted selective epitaxy, the central part of a Si PhC lattice is locally replaced with III-V gain material. The III-V material is placed to overlap with the maximum of the cavity mode field profile, while keeping the major part of the …
A robust process for fabricating intrinsic single-photon emitters in silicon nitride has been recently established. These emitters show promise for quantum applications due to room-temperature operation and monolithic integration with the technologically mature silicon nitride photonics platform. Here, the fundamental photophysical properties of these emitters are probed through measurements of optical transition wavelengths, linewidths, and photon antibunching as a function of temperature from 4.2K to 300K. Important insight into the potential for lifetime-limited linewidths is provided throu…
Single-photon emitters are essential for enabling several emerging applications in quantum information technology, quantum sensing and quantum communication. Scalable photonic platforms capable of hosting intrinsic or directly embedded sources of single-photon emission are of particular interest for the realization of integrated quantum photonic circuits. Here, we report on the first-time observation of room-temperature single-photon emitters in silicon nitride (SiN) films grown on silicon dioxide substrates. As SiN has recently emerged as one of the most promising materials for integrated qua…
Realizing single photon sources emitting in the telecom band on silicon substrates is essential to reach complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) compatible devices that secure communications over long distances. In this work, we propose the monolithic growth of needlelike tapered InAs/InP quantum dot-nanowires (QD-NWs) on silicon substrates with a small taper angle and a nanowire diameter tailored to support a single mode waveguide. Such a NW geometry is obtained by a controlled balance over axial and radial growths during the gold-catalyzed growth of the NWs by molecular beam epitaxy. …
Semiconductor lasers capable of generating a vortex beam with a specific orbital angular momentum (OAM) order are highly attractive for applications ranging from nanoparticle manipulation, imaging and microscopy to fibre and quantum communications. In this work, an electrically pumped OAM laser operating at telecom wavelengths is fabricated by monolithically integrating an optical vortex emitter with a distributed feedback (DFB) laser on the same InGaAsP/InP epitaxial wafer. A single-step dry etching process is adopted to complete the OAM emitter, equipped with specially designed top gratings.…
The recent discovery of room temperature intrinsic single-photon emitters in silicon nitride (SiN) provides the unique opportunity for seamless monolithic integration of quantum light sources with the well-established SiN photonic platform. In this work, we develop a novel approach to realize planar waveguides made of low-autofluorescing SiN with intrinsic quantum emitters and demonstrate the single-photon emission coupling into the waveguide mode. The observed emission coupling from these emitters is found to be in line with numerical simulations. The coupling of the single-photon emission to…
Integration of single-photon sources and detectors to silicon-based photonics opens the possibility of complex circuits for quantum information processing. In this work, we demonstrate integration of quantum dots with a silicon photonic add-drop filter for on-chip filtering and routing of telecom single photons. A silicon microdisk resonator acts as a narrow filter that transfers the quantum dot emission and filters the background over a wide wavelength range. Moreover, by tuning the quantum dot emission wavelength over the resonance of the microdisk we can control the transmission of the emit…
Parallel sorting of orbital angular momentum (OAM) and polarization has recently acquired paramount importance and interest in a wide range of fields ranging from telecommunications to high-dimensional quantum cryptography. Due to their inherently polarization-sensitive optical response, optical elements acting on the geometric phase prove to be useful for processing structured light beams with orthogonal polarization states by means of a single optical platform. In this work, we present the design, fabrication and test of a Pancharatnam-Berry optical element in silicon implementing a log-pol …
Thermophotovoltaic systems in principle enable utilization of heat that is usually regarded as wasted energy. However, the wavelength selectivity of the thermal emitter required for high efficiencies is rather difficult to control with conventional designs. Here, we design a thermophotovoltaic system comprising silicon rods as thermal emitter with a relatively narrow emission spectrum and a photovoltaic cell with a band gap corresponding to 1.76 $μ$m, and verify efficient power generation. By accurately measuring the heat flux that enters the emitter, the emitter temperature, and the electrica…
Direct UV-written waveguides are fabricated in silica-on-silicon with birefringence of $(4.9 \pm 0.2) \times 10^{-4}$, much greater than previously reported in this platform. We show that these waveguides are suitable for the generation of heralded single photons at telecommunication wavelengths by spontaneous four-wave mixing. A pulsed pump field at 1060 nm generates pairs of photons in highly detuned, spectrally uncorrelated modes near 1550 nm and 800 nm. Waveguide-to-fiber coupling efficiencies of 78-91% are achieved for all fields. Waveguide birefringence is controlled through dopant conce…
The on-chip creation of coherent light at visible wavelengths is crucial to field-level deployment of spectroscopy and metrology systems. Although on-chip lasers have been implemented in specific cases, a general solution that is not restricted by limitations of specific gain media has not been reported. Here, we propose creating visible light from an infrared pump by widely-separated optical parametric oscillation (OPO) using silicon nanophotonics. The OPO creates signal and idler light in the 700 nm and 1300 nm bands, respectively, with a 900 nm pump. It operates at a threshold power of (0.9…
Single-photon emitting devices have been identified as an important building block for applications in quantum information and quantum communication. They allow to transduce and collect quantum information over a long distance via photons as so called flying qubits. In addition, substrates like silicon carbide provides an excellent material platform for electronic devices. In this work we combine these two features and show that one can drive single photon emitters within a silicon carbide p-i-n-diode. To achieve this, we specifically designed a lateral oriented diode. We find a variety of new…
High-speed light emitters integrated on silicon chips can enable novel architectures for silicon-based optoelectronics, such as on-chip optical interconnects and silicon photonics. However, conventional light sources based on compound semiconductors face major challenges for their integration with the silicon-based platforms because of the difficulty of their direct growth on a silicon substrate. Here, we report high-brightness, high-speed, ultra-small-size on-chip electroluminescence (EL) emitters based on semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) thin films. The peaks of the EL e…
We report a high-responsive hot-electron photodetector based on the integration of an Au-MoS$_2$ junction with a silicon nitride microring resonator (MRR) for detecting telecom-band light. The coupling of the evanescent field of the silicon nitride MRR with the Au-MoS$_2$ Schottky junction region enhances the hot-electron injection efficiency. The device exhibits a high responsivity of 154.6 mA W-1 at the wavelength of 1516 nm, and the moderately uniform responsivities are obtained over the wavelength range of 1500 nm-1630 nm. This MRR-enhanced MoS2 hot-electron photodetector offers possibilit…
Quantum key distribution (QKD) at telecom wavelengths (1260-1625nm) has the potential for fast deployment due to existing optical fibre infrastructure and mature telecom technologies. At these wavelengths, indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) avalanche photodiode (APD) based detectors are the preferred choice for photon detection. Similar to their silicon counterparts used at shorter wavelengths, they exhibit fluorescence from recombination of electron-hole pairs generated in the avalanche breakdown process. This fluorescence may open side channels for attacks on QKD systems. Here, we characterize…
Heterostructures comprising of silicon (Si), molybdenum disulfide (MoS${_2}$) and graphene are investigated with respect to the vertical current conduction mechanism. The measured current-voltage (I-V) characteristics exhibit temperature dependent asymmetric current, indicating thermally activated charge carrier transport. The data is compared and fitted to a current transport model that confirms thermionic emission as the responsible transport mechanism across the devices. Theoretical calculations in combination with the experimental data suggest that the heterojunction barrier from Si to MoS…
Modifying light fields at single-photon level is a key challenge for upcoming quantum technologies and can be realized in a scalable manner through integrated quantum photonics. Laser-written diamond photonics offers three-dimensional fabrication capabilities and large mode-field diameters matched to fiber optic technology, though limiting the cooperativity at the single-emitter level. To realize large cooperativities, we combine excitation of single shallow-implanted silicon vacancy centers via large numerical aperture optics with detection assisted by laser-written type-II waveguides. We dem…
