Erbium quantum memory platform with long optical coherence via back-end-of-line deposition on foundry-fabricated photonics
Realizing scalable quantum interconnects necessitates the integration of solid-state quantum memories with foundry photonics processes. While prior photonic integration efforts have relied upon specialized, laboratory-scale fabrication techniques, this work demonstrates the monolithic integration of a quantum memory platform with low-loss foundry photonic circuits via back-end-of-line deposition. We deposited thin films of titanium dioxide (${\mathrm{Ti}\mathrm{O}}_{2}$) doped with erbium ($\mathrm{Er}$) onto silicon nitride nanophotonic waveguides and studied $\mathrm{Er}$ optical coherence at subkelvin temperatures with photon echo techniques. We suppressed optical dephasing through ex-situ oxygen annealing and optimized measurement conditions, which yielded an optical coherence time of $64\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{\ensuremath{\mu}}\mathrm{s}$ (a 5-kHz homogeneous linewidth) and slow spectral diffusion of 27 kHz over 4 ms, results that are comparable to state-of-the-art $\mathrm{Er}$ nanophotonic devices. Combined with second-long electron spin lifetimes and demonstrated electrical control of $\mathrm{Er}$ emission, our findings establish $\mathrm{Er}$:${\mathrm{Ti}\mathrm{O}}_{2}$ on foundry photonics as a manufacturable platform for ensemble and single-ion quantum memories.
Authors
- Ananthesh Sundaresh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-4673-2816)
- Alan Dibos (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5935-1364)
- Manish Kumar Singh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2193-2689)
- Sean E. Sullivan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5217-1069)
- Vasileios Niaouris (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5313-748X)
- Robert M. Pettit (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1619-130X)
- Daniel Max Crowley (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8956-3456)
- Lewis G. Carpenter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3112-2225)
- Skylar Deckoff–Jones (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3786-6276)
- Shobhit Gupta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-2151-7318)
Institutions
- Argonne National Laboratory (US)
- University of Illinois Chicago (US)
- AIM Photonics (United States) (US)
- MEMX (United States) (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical Review Applied
- Published
- 2025-11-13
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/xj8y-b6sl
- Primary Topic
- Quantum optics and atomic interactions
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00