English

Scalable construction of hybrid quantum photonic cavities

Optics 2025-12-18 v1 Quantum Physics

Abstract

Nanophotonic resonators are central to numerous applications, from efficient spin-photon interfaces to laser oscillators and precision sensing. A leading approach consists of photonic crystal (PhC) cavities, which have been realized in a wide range of dielectric materials. However, translating proof-of-concept devices into a functional system entails a number of additional challenges, inspiring new approaches that combine: resonators with wavelength-scale confinement and high quality factors; scalable integration with integrated circuits and photonic circuits; electrical or mechanical cavity tuning; and, in many cases, a need for heterogeneous integration with functional materials such as III-V semiconductors or diamond color centers for spin-photon interfaces. Here we introduce a concept that generates a finely tunable PhC cavity at a select wavelength between two heterogeneous optical materials whose properties satisfy the above requirements. The cavity is formed by stamping a hard-to-process material with simple waveguide geometries on top of an easy-to-process material consisting of dielectric grating mirrors and active tuning capability. We simulate our concept for the particularly challenging design problem of multiplexed quantum repeaters based on arrays of cavity-coupled diamond color centers, achieving theoretically calculated unloaded quality factors of 10610^6, mode volumes as small as 1.2(λ/neff)31.2(\lambda/n_{eff})^3, and maintaining >60 percent total on-chip collection efficiency of fluorescent photons. We further introduce a method of low-power piezoelectric tuning of these hybrid diamond cavities, simulating optical resonance shifts up to ~760 GHz and color center fluorescence tuning of 5 GHz independent of cavity tuning. These results will motivate integrated photonic cavities toward larger scale systems-compatible designs.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2410.03851,
  title  = {Scalable construction of hybrid quantum photonic cavities},
  author = {Andrew S. Greenspon and Mark Dong and Ian Christen and Gerald Gilbert and Matt Eichenfield and Dirk Englund},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2410.03851},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

15 pages, 6 figures, 2 supplementary figures