We create and isolate single-photon emitters with a high brightness approaching 105 counts per second in commercial silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers. The emission occurs in the infrared spectral range with a spectrally narrow zero phonon line in the telecom O-band and shows a high photostability even after days of continuous operation. The origin of the emitters is attributed to one of the carbon-related color centers in silicon, the so-called G center, allowing purification with the 12C and 28Si isotopes. Furthermore, we envision a concept of a highly-coherent scalable quantum photonic platform, where single-photon sources, waveguides and detectors are integrated on a SOI chip. Our results provide a route towards the implementation of quantum processors, repeaters and sensors compatible with the present-day silicon technology.
@article{arxiv.2008.09425,
title = {Engineering telecom single-photon emitters in silicon for scalable quantum photonics},
author = {M. Hollenbach and Y. Berencén and U. Kentsch and M. Helm and G. V. Astakhov},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2008.09425},
year = {2020}
}