L-band single-photon generation from a cavity-coupled silicon C-center

Abstract:Monolithic integration of single-photon sources into silicon photonics offers a compelling solution for realizing scalable quantum telecommunication architectures. Among the candidate silicon color centers, the C-center features a zero-phonon emission in the telecom L-band, corresponding to the spectral window of minimum transmission loss in optical fibers. Despite this advantage, isolating single C-centers has remained an unrealized challenge in solid-state quantum optics. In this work, we report the isolation of a single silicon C-center. We enhance the spontaneous emission rate of the zero-phonon line by coupling the single emitter to a nanophotonic crystal cavity, observing a fivefold reduction in the excited-state lifetime compared to bulk conditions, which corresponds to a Purcell factor lower bound of 33. Second-order autocorrelation measurements confirm single-photon emission from the investigated defect, obtaining an optical purity of $g^{(2)}(0) = 0.23$ without background correction. Our results establish a native telecom L-band quantum light source in silicon, laying the foundation for ultra-low-loss and long-distance quantum applications.

Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

arXiv:2609.37244 [quant-ph]

(or arXiv:2609.37244v1 [quant-ph] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2609.37244 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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