Nature Communications (Aug 2024)

Indistinguishable photons from an artificial atom in silicon photonics

  • Lukasz Komza,
  • Polnop Samutpraphoot,
  • Mutasem Odeh,
  • Yu-Lung Tang,
  • Milena Mathew,
  • Jiu Chang,
  • Hanbin Song,
  • Myung-Ki Kim,
  • Yihuang Xiong,
  • Geoffroy Hautier,
  • Alp Sipahigil

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-51265-1
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 1
pp. 1 – 5

Abstract

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Abstract Silicon is the ideal material for building electronic and photonic circuits at scale. Integrated photonic quantum technologies in silicon offer a promising path to scaling by leveraging advanced semiconductor manufacturing and integration capabilities. However, the lack of deterministic quantum light sources and strong photon-photon interactions in silicon poses a challenge to scalability. In this work, we demonstrate an indistinguishable photon source in silicon photonics based on an artificial atom. We show that a G center in a silicon waveguide can generate high-purity telecom-band single photons. We perform high-resolution spectroscopy and time-delayed two-photon interference to demonstrate the indistinguishability of single photons emitted from a G center in a silicon waveguide. Our results show that artificial atoms in silicon photonics can source single photons suitable for photonic quantum networks and processors.