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Title: Room-temperature single-photon emitters in silicon nitride
Single-photon emitters are essential in enabling several emerging applications in quantum information technology, quantum sensing, and quantum communication. Scalable photonic platforms capable of hosting intrinsic or embedded sources of single-photon emission are of particular interest for the realization of integrated quantum photonic circuits. Here, we report on the observation of room-temperature single-photon emitters in silicon nitride (SiN) films grown on silicon dioxide substrates. Photophysical analysis reveals bright (>10 5 counts/s), stable, linearly polarized, and pure quantum emitters in SiN films with a second-order autocorrelation function value at zero time delay g (2) (0) below 0.2 at room temperature. We suggest that the emission originates from a specific defect center in SiN because of the narrow wavelength distribution of the observed luminescence peak. Single-photon emitters in SiN have the potential to enable direct, scalable, and low-loss integration of quantum light sources with a well-established photonic on-chip platform.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2015025
PAR ID:
10348785
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Science Advances
Volume:
7
Issue:
50
ISSN:
2375-2548
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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