We report the detection of individual emitters in silicon belonging to seven different families of optically-active point defects. These fluorescent centers are created by carbon implantation of a commercial silicon-on-insulator wafer usually employed for integrated photonics. Single photon emission is demonstrated over the [1.1,1.55]-μm range, spanning the O- and C-telecom bands. We analyse their photoluminescence spectrum, dipolar emission and optical relaxation dynamics at 10K. For a specific family, we show a constant emission intensity at saturation from 10K to temperatures well above the 77K-liquid nitrogen temperature. Given the advanced control over nanofabrication and integration in silicon, these novel artificial atoms are promising candidates for Si-based quantum technologies.
@article{arxiv.2010.11068,
title = {Broad diversity of near-infrared single-photon emitters in silicon},
author = {A. Durand and Y. Baron and W. Redjem and T. Herzig and A. Benali and S. Pezzagna and J. Meijer and A. Yu. Kuznetsov and J. -M. Gérard and I. Robert-Philip and M. Abbarchi and V. Jacques and G. Cassabois and A. Dréau},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2010.11068},
year = {2021}
}