Work

End-to-end physics-based modeling of laser-activated color centers in silicon

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Color centers are among the most promising candidates for quantum information processing. Central requirements for their practical applications include controlled and efficient local activation in nanophotonic devices and identical spectral features. However, producing color centers in a controlled and reliable way is inherently challenging due to the lack of comprehensive theoretical insights into their formation and the difficulty of streamlining the generation process for rapid in-situ optimization. Here, we show an end-to-end first-principles model that captures the underlying formation process of color centers. Emitters are activated through laser annealing, which allows for in-situ creation and model-based control. Our model enables estimation of the emitters’ inhomogeneous broadening down to ~ 16GHz in bare silicon, translating into creation of emitters with highly similar spectral properties. We demonstrate successful laser writing in photonic crystal cavities. These results lay the foundation for deterministic and large-scale integration of color centers within quantum photonic platforms. Color centers in silicon can act as quantum light sources, but placing them reliably in photonic devices remains challenging. The authors show that laser annealing guided by a physics-based digital twin can locally create G centers with closely matched emission and write them into optical cavities.

Source: Communications Physics

DOI: 10.1038/s42005-026-02731-3