Wafer-scale nanofabrication of telecom single-photon emitters in silicon

• Published in: arXiv.org 2022-04
• Main Authors: Hollenbach, M, Klingner, N, Jagtap, N S, Bischoff, L, Fowley, C, Kentsch, U, Hlawacek, G, Erbe, A, Abrosimov, N V, Helm, M, Berencén, Y, Astakhov, G V
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Emitters; Integrated circuits; Ion beams; Nanofabrication; Optical components; Photonics; Photons; Qubits (quantum computing); Silicon; Silicon wafers; Telecommunications
• ISSN: 2331-8422
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2204.13173

A highly promising route to scale millions of qubits is to use quantum photonic integrated circuits (PICs), where deterministic photon sources, reconfigurable optical elements, and single-photon detectors are monolithically integrated on the same silicon chip. The isolation of single-photon emitters, such as the G centers and W centers, in the optical telecommunication O-band, has recently been realized in silicon. In all previous cases, however, single-photon emitters were created uncontrollably in random locations, preventing their scalability. Here, we report the controllable fabrication of single G and W centers in silicon wafers using focused ion beams (FIB) with a probability exceeding 50%. We also implement a scalable, broad-beam implantation protocol compatible with the complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology to fabricate single telecom emitters at desired positions on the nanoscale. Our findings unlock a clear and easily exploitable pathway for industrial-scale photonic quantum processors with technology nodes below 100 nm.