A silicon carbide room-temperature single-photon source

S Castelletto; B C Johnson; V Ivády; N Stavrias; T Umeda; A Gali; T Ohshima

doi:10.1038/nmat3806

A silicon carbide room-temperature single-photon source

Nat Mater. 2014 Feb;13(2):151-6. doi: 10.1038/nmat3806. Epub 2013 Nov 17.

Authors

S Castelletto¹, B C Johnson², V Ivády³, N Stavrias⁴, T Umeda⁵, A Gali⁶, T Ohshima⁷

Affiliations

¹ School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia.
² 1] Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology, School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia [2] SemiConductor Analysis and Radiation Effects Group, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, 1233 Watanuki, Takasaki, Gunma 370-1292, Japan.
³ 1] Institute for Solid State Physics and Optics, Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, POB 49, H-1525, Hungary [2] Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, Linköping University, SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden.
⁴ School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia.
⁵ Graduate School of Library, Information and Media Studies, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba 305-8550, Japan.
⁶ 1] Institute for Solid State Physics and Optics, Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, POB 49, H-1525, Hungary [2] Department of Atomic Physics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budafoki út 8, H-1111 Budapest, Hungary.
⁷ SemiConductor Analysis and Radiation Effects Group, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, 1233 Watanuki, Takasaki, Gunma 370-1292, Japan.

PMID: 24240243
DOI: 10.1038/nmat3806

Abstract

Over the past few years, single-photon generation has been realized in numerous systems: single molecules, quantum dots, diamond colour centres and others. The generation and detection of single photons play a central role in the experimental foundation of quantum mechanics and measurement theory. An efficient and high-quality single-photon source is needed to implement quantum key distribution, quantum repeaters and photonic quantum information processing. Here we report the identification and formation of ultrabright, room-temperature, photostable single-photon sources in a device-friendly material, silicon carbide (SiC). The source is composed of an intrinsic defect, known as the carbon antisite-vacancy pair, created by carefully optimized electron irradiation and annealing of ultrapure SiC. An extreme brightness (2×10(6) counts s(-1)) resulting from polarization rules and a high quantum efficiency is obtained in the bulk without resorting to the use of a cavity or plasmonic structure. This may benefit future integrated quantum photonic devices.

Publication types

Letter