Programmable quantum emitter formation in silicon
Kaushalya Jhuria, Vsevolod Ivanov, Debanjan Polley, Yertay Zhiyenbayev, Wei Liu, Arun Persaud, Walid Redjem, Wayesh Qarony, Prakash Parajuli, Qing Ji, A. J. Gonsalves, Jeffrey Bokor, Liang Z. Tan, Boubacar Kanté, T. Schenkel
Abstract
Abstract Silicon-based quantum emitters are candidates for large-scale qubit integration due to their single-photon emission properties and potential for spin-photon interfaces with long spin coherence times. Here, we demonstrate local writing and erasing of selected light-emitting defects using femtosecond laser pulses in combination with hydrogen-based defect activation and passivation at a single center level. By choosing forming gas (N 2 /H 2 ) during thermal annealing of carbon-implanted silicon, we can select the formation of a series of hydrogen and carbon-related quantum emitters, including T and C i centers while passivating the more common G-centers. The C i center is a telecom S-band emitter with promising optical and spin properties that consists of a single interstitial carbon atom in the silicon lattice. Density functional theory calculations show that the C i center brightness is enhanced by several orders of magnitude in the presence of hydrogen. Fs-laser pulses locally affect the passivation or activation of quantum emitters with hydrogen for programmable formation of selected quantum emitters.