Engineering single emitters in silicon based devices

光的单量子-光子-可以用来开发新一代的设备，这些设备将提供基于量子力学定律的前所未有的性能。这些量子器件在广泛的信息技术和科学应用中具有优势。其中包括具有牢不可破的安全性的信息交换，提供最终测量精度的传感器以及能够以比现代超级计算机更快的速度解决特定问题的计算机的开发。光子也是测试量子力学科学理论的完美系统，因为它们具有低噪声特性和易于操作。如果用于光子控制和检测的光网络现在已经被很好地理解，那么光子的可控生成是目前实现复杂量子电路的主要瓶颈。目前，这限制了破坏性量子技术的发展和基于光的复杂实验的设计。该项目旨在提供表现出高性能、明亮和可扩展的单光子源。我们将研究基于嵌入碳化硅中的色心的发射器，碳化硅是一种通常用于电子产品的半导体材料，使它们可以用当前的纳米纤维技术制造。光子发射器可以以高空间精度创建，提供了将它们放置在复杂集成设备中的可能性。我们将开发，优化和制造纳米尺寸的碳化硅光学器件，耦合到半导体发射器。这将提供单光子源，可用作基于光的多种量子技术的构建模块，包括通信，传感和计算。将这种光子源与附加的集成光子组件集成的可能性为以超低功率操作的全功能单片设备开辟了道路，这可能会引起更广泛的ICT行业的兴趣。

Single quanta of light - photons - can be used to develop a new generation of devices that will provide unprecedented performances based on the laws of quantum mechanics. These quantum devices promise advantages in a wide range of information technology and scientific applications. These include the exchange of information with unbreakable security, sensors that provide the ultimate measurement precision and the development of computers that can solve particular problems exponentially faster than a modern supercomputer. Photons are also the perfect system to test scientific theories for quantum mechanics, given their low noise characteristics and ease of manipulation. If optical networks for photonic control and detection are now well understood, the controllable generation of photons is currently the main bottleneck to achieve complex quantum circuits. This is currently limiting both the development of disruptive quantum technologies and the design of complex experiments based on light. This project aims to deliver single photon sources that show high performance, are bright and scalable. We will study emitters based on colour centres embedded in silicon carbide, a semiconductor material commonly used for electronics, making them manufacturable with current nanofabrication technologies. The photon emitters can be created with high spatial precision, offering the possibility of placing them in complex integrated devices. We will develop, optimise and fabricate nanometre sized optical devices in silicon carbide that couple to the semiconductor emitters. This will provide single photon sources that can be used as a building block for a multitude of quantum technologies based on light, including communication, sensing and computing. The possibility to integrate such photon source with additional integrated photonic components opens the way to fully functional monolithic devices operating at ultralow power that can be of interest to a broader spectrum of ICT industries.