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Abstract Silicon-based quantum emitters are candidates for large-scale qubit integration due to their single-photon emission properties and potential for spin-photon interfaces with long spin coherence times. Here, we demonstrate local writing and erasing of selected light-emitting defects using femtosecond laser pulses in combination with hydrogen-based defect activation and passivation at a single center level. By choosing forming gas (N₂/H₂) during thermal annealing of carbon-implanted silicon, we can select the formation of a series of hydrogen and carbon-related quantum emitters, including T and C_icenters while passivating the more common G-centers. The C_icenter is a telecom S-band emitter with promising optical and spin properties that consists of a single interstitial carbon atom in the silicon lattice. Density functional theory calculations show that the C_icenter brightness is enhanced by several orders of magnitude in the presence of hydrogen. Fs-laser pulses locally affect the passivation or activation of quantum emitters with hydrogen for programmable formation of selected quantum emitters. 

Siilicon is the most scalable optoelectronic material but has suffered from its inability to generate directly and efficiently classical or quantum light on-chip. Scaling and integration are the most fundamental challenges facing quantum science and technology. We report an all-silicon quantum light source based on a single atomic emissive center embedded in a silicon-based nanophotonic cavity. We observe a more than 30-fold enhancement of luminescence, a near-unity atom-cavity coupling efficiency, and an 8-fold acceleration of the emission from the all-silicon quantum emissive center. Our work opens immediate avenues for large-scale integrated cavity quantum electrodynamics and quantum light-matter interfaces with applications in quantum communication and networking, sensing, imaging, and computing.