Optical observation of single spins in silicon

A. T. K. Kurkjian, D. B. Higginbottom, C. Chartrand, E. R. MacQuarrie, J. R. Klein, N. R. Lee-Hone, J. Stacho, C. Bowness, L. Bergeron, A. DeAbreu, N. A. Brunelle, S. R. Harrigan, J. Kanaganayagam, M. Kazemi, D. W. Marsden, T. S. Richards, L. A. Stott, S. Roorda, K. J. Morse, M. L. W. Thewalt, S. Simmons

Published 2021-03-13Version 1

The global quantum internet will require long-lived, telecommunications band photon-matter interfaces manufactured at scale. Preliminary quantum networks based upon photon-matter interfaces which meet a subset of these demands are encouraging efforts to identify new high-performance alternatives. Silicon is an ideal host for commercial-scale solid-state quantum technologies. It is already an advanced platform within the global integrated photonics and microelectronics industries, as well as host to record-setting long-lived spin qubits. Despite the overwhelming potential of the silicon quantum platform, the optical detection of individually addressable photon-spin interfaces in silicon has remained elusive. In this work we produce tens of thousands of individually addressable `$T$ centre' photon-spin qubits in integrated silicon photonic structures, and characterize their spin-dependent telecommunications-band optical transitions. These results unlock immediate opportunities to construct silicon-integrated, telecommunications-band quantum information networks.