Scalable Manufacturing of Deterministically Positioned Quantum Emitters

This award aims to address an unmet need in quantum information science and technology, a key area in the US national needs, to achieve deterministically positioning single quantum emitters in a scalable and integrable way. The prospect of translating quantum information science and technology to real-world applications can potentially revolutionize how tasks are performed in computing, communication and sensing. This ultimately requires chip-scale quantum photonic integrated circuits that can be manufactured with scale. While single-photon emission has been achieved using various material systems and logic operations through photon-photon interactions in some of these have been demonstrated, routes to scaling such systems remain challenging. This has led to a global research effort to attain a large number of qubits. Despite some noteworthy advancements utilizing pick-and-lace approaches, there has not been a clear path for integrating individual quantum emitters with on-chip photonic and electronic components deterministically in a scalable way. This research aims to provide a new route towards scalable and manufacturable quantum photonic integrated circuits. The impact of this project will be further broadened through training the future workforce in advanced manufacturing skills and knowledge in quantum technologies. The goal of this project is to demonstrate an advanced manufacturing method that can achieve deterministic positioning of individual single-photon emitters and large 2D arrays composed of such single-photon sources. The former is critical for integrating single-photon emitters with other quantum devices to realize chip-scale quantum systems, while the latter is essential for large-scale quantum computing and simulation. A new process that is compatible with semiconductor manufacturing will be developed to achieve both goals simultaneously. Solution-processed semiconductor quantum dots possess unmatched advantage of facile integration with various micro-photonic components on a wide variety of platforms. They have been demonstrated as single-photon quantum emitters. However, there has not been a scalable process that can position individual quantum dots at pre-determined locations without the possibility of compromising their qualities. This research aims to develop a manufacturing method that can achieve high repeatability and scalability through a parallel instead of a serial process, while preserving the properties of the quantum dot single-photon emitters through no modification and chemical exposure of the materials during the process. The team aims to achieve a resolution orders of magnitude higher than what they have previously demonstrated for micropatterning quantum dots. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.