Strain tuning of individual telecom color centers in reconfigurable silicon photonics

Color centers in silicon, such as G and T centers, have gained significant attention as potential candidates for quantum information processing, particularly due to their compatibility with established silicon fabrication techniques and their telecom wavelength operation. Despite their promise, the scalability of such systems depends on the ability to tune single emitters to identical frequencies, enabling multiphoton interference. Although frequency tuning of ensembles has been shown, the controllable and reversible tuning of individual color centers in silicon has not been demonstrated.

In this work, we present a waveguide-integrated device that leverages MEMS photonics to achieve controlled strain tuning of a single G center’s emission frequency. By applying a 35 V driving voltage, we demonstrate a tuning range of up to 400 pm. Additionally, we compare these results to a piezospectroscopic model, correlating the tuning behavior with the emitter’s position within the waveguide. This milestone is crucial for advancing silicon color center technology, potentially enabling the development of quantum memories and entangling gates for quantum communication and computing.