Rapid and Scalable Single Colour-Centre Implantation for Single Photon Sources

电离原子束广泛应用于许多领域，从半导体的生产应用，到医疗仪器和癌症诊断。离子束的一项新应用是制造量子技术（QT）设备，允许未来创建功能强大的量子计算机，其应用包括医学研究和药物发现。一个已经在市场上的QT是量子密码学系统，用于发送不可破解的代码，它依赖于单光子传输。目前，构成现有量子计算机的“量子比特”，以及产生单光子的光发射器，都只能在研究实验室中制造出来。如果要实现QT的更大潜力，并达到广泛而不是小众商业化的临界点，该行业需要一种可靠、快速、高精度离子放置的制造解决方案。这对于能够为量子计算生成量子位阵列至关重要。离子束注入可能是解决方案。然而，要确保离子被精确地放置，并确保在每个量子“量子位”或每个单光子源发射器中精确地有一个原子，这是一个主要的挑战。例如，一个包含两个发射原子的光发射器的密码系统将是无用的，因为在每个脉冲中会产生两个光子，从而有机会捕获一个并窃听对话。Ionoptika的新Q-One单离子注入系统直接针对单原子QT器件生产的新兴领域。剩下的限制因素是确保准确的离子放置（用于阵列生成）和从元素周期表中获得所需离子源的可用性。目前，一些光源是现成的，如镓和铋，但都是差的光发射器。创造新的资源非常困难，需要先进的冶金和离子束物理专业知识，限制了商业可用性。目前，拥有这种专业知识是拥有离子注入设备的先决条件，这极大地限制了Q-One的市场渗透率。Ionoptika和萨里大学将测试一种新的质量控制过程的可行性，以确认精确的离子放置，并研究两个与量子工业更相关的新来源。Ionoptika将能够开发一种改进的Q-One机器，适用于量子技术的研究和制造，这是市场上第一个这样的设备。

Beams of ionised atoms find widespread use in many fields from production applications in semiconductors, to medical instrumentation and cancer diagnosis.A new application of ion beams is the manufacture of Quantum Technology (QT) devices, allowing the future creation of immensely powerful Quantum Computers with applications including medical research and drug discovery. A QT that is already on the market is the Quantum Cryptography system for sending unbreakable codes, which relies on single photon transmission. At present the "qubits" that make up existing quantum computers, and the light emitters producing the single photons, are made only in research labs.If the wider potential of QT is ever to be realised and reach the tipping point of widespread rather than niche commercialisation, the industry needs a manufacturing solution that is reliable and fast with high accurate ion placement. This is vital to be able to generate arrays of qubits for quantum computing.Ion beam implantation could be that solution. However, there is a major challenge to ensure ions are placed with great accuracy and to ensure that there is precisely one atom in each quantum "qubit" or each single photon source emitter. For example, a cryptography system containing a light emitter with two emitter atoms inside would be useless, because then two photons will be generated in each pulse, giving the chance to capture one and eavesdrop the conversation.Ionoptika's new Q-One single ion implantation system is aimed squarely at the emerging area of single atom QT device production. The remaining limiting factors are ensuring accurate ion placement (for array generation) and the availability of desirable ion sources from across the periodic table of the elements. Currently, a few sources are readily available, such as gallium and bismuth, but all are poor light emitters. Creating new sources is extremely difficult, requiring advanced expertise in metallurgy and ion beam physics, limiting commercial availability. Having this expertise is, currently, a pre-requisite to owning an ion implantation device, significantly limiting Q-One's market penetration.Ionoptika and the University of Surrey will test the feasibility of a new quality control process for confirming accurate ion placement and investigate two new sources more relevant to the quantum industry. Ionoptika will then be able to develop an improved Q-One machine suitable for research and manufacture of quantum technologies, the first such device in the market.