Long optical and electron spin coherence times for erbium ions in silicon
Spins in silicon that are accessible via a telecom-compatible optical transition are a versatile platform for quantum information processing that can leverage the well-established silicon nanofabrication industry. Key to these applications are long coherence times on the optical and spin transitions to provide a robust system for interfacing photonic and spin qubits. Here, we report telecom-compatible Er3+ sites with long optical and electron spin coherence times, measured within a nuclear spin-free silicon crystal (<0.01 % 29Si) using optical detection. We investigate two sites and find 0.1 GHz optical inhomogeneous linewidths and homogeneous linewidths below 70 kHz for both sites. We measure the electron spin coherence time of both sites using optically detected magnetic resonance and observe Hahn echo decay constants of 0.8 ms and 1.2 ms at ~ 11 mT. These optical and spin properties of Er3+:Si are an important milestone towards using optically accessible spins in silicon for a broad range of quantum information processing applications.
Authors
- Rose L. Ahlefeldt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2006-2941)
- Sven Rogge (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1078-9482)
- Alexey Lyasota (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6141-2349)
- Gabriele G. de Boo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7925-6540)
- Jeffrey C. McCallum (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6692-7728)
- Ian R. Berkman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2363-5917)
- Chunming Yin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0117-8225)
- John G. Bartholomew (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0780-2471)
- Shao Qi Lim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1238-0333)
- Matthew J. Sellars (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0502-0444)
- Brett C. Johnson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2174-4178)
- N. V. Abrosimov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2042-4754)
- Shouyi Xie
- Hans-Joachim Pohl
- Bin-Bin Xu
Institutions
- University of Science and Technology of China (CN)
- The University of Sydney (AU)
- UNSW Sydney (AU)
- InfoConsult (Germany) (DE)
- Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology (AU)
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems (AU)
- RMIT University (AU)
- Leibniz Institute for Crystal Growth (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- npj Quantum Information
- Published
- 2025-04-18
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41534-025-01008-x
- Citations
- 9
- Primary Topic
- Quantum optics and atomic interactions
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 11.22
Funders
- Australian National Fabrication Facility
- University of New South Wales
- Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology, Australian Research Council