Strain engineering of the electronic states of silicon-based quantum emitters

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

Light-emitting complex defects in silicon have been considered a potential platform for quantum technologies based on spin and photon degrees of freedom working at telecom wavelengths. Their integration in complex devices is still in its infancy and has been mostly focused on light extraction and guiding. Here the control of the electronic states of carbon-related impurities (G-centers) is addressed via strain engineering. By embedding them in patches of silicon on insulator and topping them with SiN, symmetry breaking along [001] and [110] directions is demonstrated, resulting in a controlled splitting of the zero phonon line (ZPL), as accounted for by the piezospectroscopic theoretical framework. The splitting can be as large as 18 meV, and it is finely tuned by selecting patch size or by moving in different positions on the patch. Some of the split, strained ZPLs are almost fully polarized, and their overall intensity is enhanced up to 7 times with respect to the flat areas, whereas their recombination dynamics is slightly affected accounting for the lack of Purcell effect. This technique can be extended to other impurities and Si-based devices such as suspended bridges, photonic crystal microcavities, Mie resonators, and integrated photonic circuits.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number2301608
Number of pages12
JournalAdvanced optical materials
Volume12 (2024)
Issue number4
Early online date31 Aug 2023
Publication statusPublished - 7 Feb 2024
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0002-4217-0951/work/142658616
ORCID /0000-0003-0311-1745/work/142659318
WOS 001119135200001

Keywords

Keywords

  • carbon impurities in silicon, G-centers, strain engineering