Silicon Quantum Photonics - Platform and Applications

Silicon quantum photonics is the leading platform of integrated quantum photonics thanks to its advantages of ultradense integration, complementary metal–oxide semiconductor-compatible fabrication, etc. However, to enter the fault-tolerant, breakthroughs on the photon sources, optical loss, and quantum process fidelity have to be achieved before silicon-integrated quantum photonics can really achieve a useful scale. In this chapter, we will present the basics of silicon quantum photonics and give an overview of the state of the art. The chapter is structured as follows. In Section 22.2, we will discuss the typical fabrication process and necessary passive and active optical components. In Section 22.3, we will further present an overview of different quantum light sources on silicon, including quantum dot sources on silicon and nonlinear sources. In Section 22.4, we will discuss applications in processing of quantum information on silicon and quantum communication. Finally, we will give an outlook of silicon quantum photonics for further scaling.