On-chip integration of single solid-state quantum emitters with a SiO₂ photonic platform

Abstract

One important building block for future integrated nanophotonic devices is the scalable on-chip interfacing of single photon emitters and quantum memories with single optical modes. Here we present the deterministic integration of a single solid-state qubit, the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center, with a photonic platform consisting exclusively of SiO 2 grown thermally on a Si substrate. The platform stands out by its ultra-low fluorescence and the ability to produce various passive structures such as high-Q microresonators and mode-size converters. By numerical analysis an optimal structure for the efficient coupling of a dipole emitter to the guided mode could be determined. Experimentally, the integration of a preselected NV emitter was performed with an atomic force microscope and the on-chip excitation of the quantum emitter as well as the coupling of single photons to the guided mode of the integrated structure could be demonstrated. Our approach shows the potential of this platform as a robust nanoscale interface of on-chip photonic structures with solid-state qubits.

Hybrid Quantum Photonics Based on Artificial Atoms Placed Inside One Hole of a Photonic Crystal Cavity

“…The quantum emitter's spatial degrees of freedom are one of the most crucial factors influencing the coupling strength and often hinders high Purcell-factors. Evanescent coupling of color center in NDs to waveguides can offer coupling on the single photon level [12]. Nevertheless, an emitter inside the waveguide can show stronger coupling due to better electric field overlap.…”

“…There-fore, we use a hybrid quantum photonics approach that allows us to integrate atomic systems in complex, on-chip photonic circuits [11]. Hybridization to date often relies on evanescent coupling [12][13][14][15] with coupling rates limited by the exponential decay of the electric field. Our approach is based on a long-standing goal in cQED, namely to position an atom in the electric field maximum of a photonic crystal cavity (PCC).…”

Preparing single SiV− center in nanodiamonds for external, optical coupling with access to all degrees of freedom

“…In such cases, color centers inside the ND can be efficiently coupled to the outside optically via the evanescent field. Optical coupling gives access to, for example, post-processing of classical photonics towards quantum photonics applications [7][8][9][10]. For efficient operation, it is important to optimize all degrees of freedom such as position, dipole alignment as well as the intrinsic optical properties, like a high flux of coherent photons, spectral stability and a narrow inhomogeneous distribution.…”

Silicon photonic add-drop filter for quantum emitters

“…Major advances have been made to integrate such high-quality single photon sources with low loss silicon-based optical waveguides. For example, several works have demonstrated the integration of solid-state quantum emitters with SiO2 [9], SiN [10][11][12][13][14], and Si photonic chips [15,16]. Moreover, recent advances in developing on-chip single-photon detectors [17][18][19] have paved the way for quantum photonic circuits that are fully chip-integrated (i.e., the photons do not leave the chip from generation to detection).…”