Scalable fabrication of single quantum emitters in silicon

Single-photon sources are one of the elementary building blocks for photonic quantum information and optical quantum computing. One of the upcoming challenges is the monolithic photonic integration and coupling of single-photon emission, reconfigurable photonic elements and single-photon detection on a silicon chip by a controllable manner. To this end, deterministic single-photon sources monolithically integrated with silicon quantum photonic integrated circuits (QPIC) represent a new tool in quantum photonics, complementing heralded probabilistic sources and offering very-large-scale integration (VLSI).
The isolation of single-photon emitters in the optical telecommunication O-band, such as the G centers and W centers, has recently been realized in silicon. In all previous cases, however, single-photon emitters were created randomly and uncontrollably, preventing their scalability. We realize the controllable fabrication of single G and W centers in silicon wafers using focused ion beams with high probability. We also implement a scalable, broad-beam implantation protocol compatible with the complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology to fabricate single telecom emitters in desired positions on the nanoscale.
Our results enable the direct realization of QPIC with monolithically integrated single-photon sources with electrical control. Our findings also provide a route for the quasi-deterministic creation of single G and W centers at desired locations of photonic structures, including SOI waveguides and tunable cavities. This altogether unlocks clear pathways toward the implementation of industrial-scale photonic quantum processors.