Enhanced Telecom Emission from Single Group-IV Quantum Dots by Precise CMOS-Compatible Positioning in Photonic Crystal Cavities

Efficient coupling to integrated high-quality-factor cavities is crucial for the employment of germanium quantum dot (QD) emitters in future monolithic silicon-based optoelectronic platforms. We report on strongly enhanced emission from single Ge QDs into L3 photonic crystal resonator (PCR) modes based on precise positioning of these dots at the maximum of the respective mode field energy density. Perfect site control of Ge QDs grown on pre-patterned silicon-on-insulator substrates was exploited to fabricate in one processing run almost 300 PCRs containing single QDs in systematically varying positions within the cavities. Extensive photoluminescence studies on this cavity chip enable a direct evaluation of the position dependent coupling efficiency between single dots and selected cavity modes. The experimental results demonstrate the great potential of the approach allowing CMOS-compatible parallel fabrication of arrays of spatially matched dot/cavity systems for group-IV-based data transfer or quantum optical systems in the telecom regime.