Photophysics of Intrinsic Single-Photon Emitters in Silicon Nitride at Low Temperatures

A robust process for fabricating intrinsic single-photon emitters in silicon nitride has been recently established. These emitters show promise for quantum applications due to room-temperature operation and monolithic integration with the technologically mature silicon nitride photonics platform. Here, the fundamental photophysical properties of these emitters are probed through measurements of optical transition wavelengths, linewidths, and photon antibunching as a function of temperature from 4.2K to 300K. Important insight into the potential for lifetime-limited linewidths is provided through measurements of inhomogeneous and temperature-dependent homogeneous broadening of the zero-phonon lines. At 4.2K, spectral diffusion was found to be the main broadening mechanism, while time-resolved spectroscopy measurements revealed homogeneously broadened zero-phonon lines with instrument-limited linewidths.