Single G centers in silicon fabricated by co-implantation with carbon\n and proton

Abstract

We report the fabrication of G centers in silicon with an areal density\ncompatible with single photon emission at optical telecommunication\nwavelengths. Our sample is made from a silicon-on-insulator wafer which is\nlocally implanted with carbon ions and protons at various fluences. Decreasing\nthe implantation fluences enables to gradually switch from large ensembles to\nisolated single defects, reaching areal densities of G centers down to\n$\\sim$0.2 $\\mu$m$^{-2}$. Single defect creation is demonstrated by photon\nantibunching in intensity-correlation experiments, thus establishing our\napproach as a reproducible procedure for generating single artificial atoms in\nsilicon for quantum technologies.\n