Engineering single emitters in silicon based devices

Single quanta of light - photons - can be used to develop a new generation of devices that will provide unprecedented performances based on the laws of quantum mechanics. These quantum devices promise advantages in a wide range of information technology and scientific applications. These include the exchange of information with unbreakable security, sensors that provide the ultimate measurement precision and the development of computers that can solve particular problems exponentially faster than a modern supercomputer. Photons are also the perfect system to test scientific theories for quantum mechanics, given their low noise characteristics and ease of manipulation. If optical networks for photonic control and detection are now well understood, the controllable generation of photons is currently the main bottleneck to achieve complex quantum circuits. This is currently limiting both the development of disruptive quantum technologies and the design of complex experiments based on light. This project aims to deliver single photon sources that show high performance, are bright and scalable. We will study emitters based on colour centres embedded in silicon carbide, a semiconductor material commonly used for electronics, making them manufacturable with current nanofabrication technologies. The photon emitters can be created with high spatial precision, offering the possibility of placing them in complex integrated devices. We will develop, optimise and fabricate nanometre sized optical devices in silicon carbide that couple to the semiconductor emitters. This will provide single photon sources that can be used as a building block for a multitude of quantum technologies based on light, including communication, sensing and computing. The possibility to integrate such photon source with additional integrated photonic components opens the way to fully functional monolithic devices operating at ultralow power that can be of interest to a broader spectrum of ICT industries.