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Quantum Coherence of Rare-Earth Ions in Heterogeneous Photonic Interfaces
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Quantum Coherence of Rare-Earth Ions in Heterogeneous Photonic Interfaces

Henry C Hammer, Hassan A Bukhari, Yogendra Limbu, Brett M Wasick, Christopher Rouleau, Michael E Flatté, Durga Paudyal, Denis R Candido and Ravitej Uppu
ArXiv.org
Cornell University
11/24/2025
DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2511.19668
url
https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2511.19668View
Preprint (Author's original)This preprint has not been evaluated by subject experts through peer review. Preprints may undergo extensive changes and/or become peer-reviewed journal articles. Open Access

Abstract

Harnessing rare-earth ions in oxides for quantum networks requires integration with bright emitters in III-V semiconductors, but local disorder and interfacial noise limit their optical coherence. Here, we investigate the microscopic origins of the ensemble spectrum in Er $^{3+}$ :TiO $_2$epitaxial thin films on GaAs and GaSb substrates. Ab initio calculations combined with noise-Hamiltonian modeling and Monte Carlo simulations quantify the effects of interfacial and bulk spin noise and local strain on erbium crystal-field energies and inhomogeneous linewidths. Photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy reveals that Er $^{3+}$ions positioned at increasing distances from the III-V/oxide interface produce a systematic blue shift of the$Y_1\rightarrow Z_1$transition, consistent with strain relaxation predicted by theory. Thermal annealing produces a compensating redshift and linewidth narrowing, isolating the roles of oxygen-vacancy and gallium-diffusion noise. These results provide microscopic insight into disorder-driven decoherence, offering pathways for precise control of hybrid quantum systems for scalable quantum technologies.
Physics - Optics Physics - Quantum Physics

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