Optical and spin coherence of Er${}^{3+}$ in epitaxial CeO${}_2$ on silicon

Abstract

Solid-state atomic defects with optical transitions in the telecommunication bands, potentially in a nuclear spin free environment, are important for applications in fiber-based quantum networks. Erbium ions doped in CeO${}_2$ offer such a desired combination. Here we report on the optical homogeneous linewidth and electron spin coherence of Er${}^{3+}$ ions doped in CeO${}_2$ epitaxial film grown on a Si(111) substrate. The long-lived optical transition near 1530 nm in the environmentally-protected 4f shell of Er${}^{3+}$ shows a narrow homogeneous linewidth of 440 kHz with an optical coherence time of 0.72 $\mu$s at 3.6 K. The reduced nuclear spin noise in the host allows for Er${}^{3+}$ electron spin polarization at 3.6 K, yielding an electron spin coherence of 0.66 $\mu$s (in the isolated ion limit) and a spin relaxation of 2.5 ms. These findings indicate the potential of Er${}^{3+}$:CeO${}_2$ film as a valuable platform for quantum networks and communication applications.

18 pages, 4 figures

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Cited by in corpus (2)

• Nuclear Spin Engineering for Quantum Information Science
• Erbium-implanted WS2 flakes with room-temperature photon emission at telecom wavelengths