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Erbium implanted silicon for solid-state quantum technologies

Erbium implanted silicon as a quantum technology platform has both telecommunications and integrated circuit (IC) processing compatibility. The electron spin coherence time of Er implanted Si with an Er concentration of 3X1017 cm-3 is measured to be ~10 μs at 5 K and the spin echo decay profile displays strong modulation due to super-hyperfine interaction with 29Si nuclei. Three independent measurements: temperature quenching of photoluminescence (PL), PL lifetime and photo-illuminated electron spin resonance (ESR) all indicate the presence of a previously unreported Er related defect state which can facilitate non-radiative relaxation from the Er exited state. This gives an energy level scheme analogous to that of the diamond NV centre, and implies that optical spin polarisation of the Zeeman ground state and high temperature operation of Er qubits in Er implanted Si may be feasible. The collective coupling strength between a superconducting NbN lumped-element microresonator and Er implanted Si with an Er concentration of 1017 cm-3 at 20 mK was ~ 1 MHz.