Individually addressable and spectrally programmable artificial atoms in silicon photonics

• Published in: Nature communications 2023-04, Vol.14 (1), p.2380-2380, Article 2380
• Main Authors: Prabhu, Mihika, Errando-Herranz, Carlos, De Santis, Lorenzo, Christen, Ian, Chen, Changchen, Gerlach, Connor, Englund, Dirk
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 639/624/399/1099; 639/624/400/482; 639/766/400/3925; Color centers; Data processing; Deactivation; Emissions; Emitters; Humanities and Social Sciences; Information processing; Integrated circuits; Matter & antimatter; multidisciplinary; Photon emission; Photonics; Photons; Physics; Quantum dots; Quantum phenomena; Quantum Physics; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Silicon; SOI (semiconductors); Spectral emittance; Telecommunications; Trimming; Very large scale; Waveguides
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37655-x

A central goal for quantum technologies is to develop platforms for precise and scalable control of individually addressable artificial atoms with efficient optical interfaces. Color centers in silicon, such as the recently-isolated carbon-related G-center, exhibit emission directly into the telecommunications O-band and can leverage the maturity of silicon-on-insulator photonics. We demonstrate the generation, individual addressing, and spectral trimming of G-center artificial atoms in a silicon-on-insulator photonic integrated circuit platform. Focusing on the neutral charge state emission at 1278 nm, we observe waveguide-coupled single photon emission with narrow inhomogeneous distribution with standard deviation of 1.1 nm, excited state lifetime of 8.3 ± 0.7 ns, and no degradation after over a month of operation. In addition, we introduce a technique for optical trimming of spectral transitions up to 300 pm (55 GHz) and local deactivation of single artificial atoms. This non-volatile spectral programming enables alignment of quantum emitters into 25 GHz telecommunication grid channels. Our demonstration opens the path to quantum information processing based on implantable artificial atoms in very large scale integrated photonics. Realising integrated photonic circuits containing isolated telecommunications-wavelength artificial atom single photon emitters is an outstanding challenge in quantum technologies. Here, the authors demonstrate how to embed optically tunable G-centers in silicon-on-insulator integrated circuits.