Silicon Color Center Light Emitting Diodes as Electrically Driven, Telecom, Quantum Light Sources

We fabricate light emitting diodes (LED) in silicon designed to generate electroluminescence (EL) from two types of color centers (CC) formed within p-i-n junctions and characterize their emission. We report W-center EL at 1218 nm, and discuss progress toward obtaining G-center EL, which emits within the O-band at 1278 nm, making them promising emitters for applications in quantum key distribution, optical quantum computing, metrology, and more. These applications are currently limited by the lack of bright, high-purity, indistinguishable single photon sources at telecom wavelengths, especially those that can be electrically integrated into existing silicon electronics/photonics. Using spectral and scanning confocal measurements, we also characterize phenomena in our devices under high current injection such as thermal broadening, broadband background emission, and bleaching. These results motivate the design of future devices that harness high photon collection efficiency achievable with optical cavity integration, and reduced heating by mitigating parasitic resistance.