Deterministic Integration of Single Photon Sources in Silicon Based Photonic Circuits

Abstract

A major step towards fully integrated quantum optics is deterministic incorporation of high quality single photon sources in on-chip optical circuits. We show a novel hybrid approach in which preselected III-V single quantum dots in nanowires are transferred and integrated in silicon based photonic circuits. The quantum emitters maintain their high optical quality after integration as verified by measuring a low multiphoton probability of 0.07±0.07 and emission linewidth as narrow as 3.45±0.48 GHz. Our approach allows for optimum alignment of quantum dots dipole moments to the waveguide modes resulting in very high coupling efficiencies into the waveguide modes. We estimate a coupling efficiency of 24.3±1.7% from the studied single-photon source to the photonic channel and further show by finite-difference time-domain simulations that for an optimized choice of material and design the efficiency can exceed 90%.