Controlling single rare earth ion emission in an electro-optical nanocavity

Abstract

Rare earth emitters enable critical quantum resources including spin qubits, single photon sources, and quantum memories. Yet, probing of single ions remains challenging due to low emission rate of their intra-4f optical transitions. One feasible approach is through Purcell enhanced emission in optical cavities. The ability to modulate cavity-ion coupling in real time will further elevate the capacity of such systems. Here, we demonstrate direct control of single ion emission by embedding erbium dopants in an electro-optically active photonic crystal cavity patterned from thin-film lithium niobate. Purcell factor over 170 enables single ion detection, which is verified by second-order autocorrelation measurement. Dynamic control of emission rate is realized by leveraging electro-optic tuning of resonance frequency. Using this feature, storage and retrieval of single ion excitation is further demonstrated, without perturbing the emission characteristics. These results promise new opportunities for controllable single photon sources and efficient spin-photon interfaces.

References in corpus (6)

• Monolithic Ultrahigh-Q Lithium Niobate Microring Resonator
• A magneto-optic modulator with unit quantum effciency
• An Integrated Photonic Platform for Rare-Earth Ions in Thin Film Lithium Niobate
• Spectral multiplexing of telecom emitters with stable transition frequency
• Efficient Spatial Redistribution of Quantum Dot Spontaneous Emission from 2D Photonic Crystals
• Inhomogeneous response of an ion ensemble from mechanical stress

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• Coherence Properties of Rare-Earth Spins in Micrometer-Thin Films
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• Purcell-enhanced optical refrigeration
• Selective excitation of a single rare-earth ion in an optical fiber
• Comparing the performance of practical two-qubit gates for individual ${}^{171}$Yb ions in yttrium orthovanadate