Controlled growth of rare-earth-doped TiO$_{2}$ thin films on III-V semiconductors for hybrid quantum photonic interfaces

Quantum Physics arXiv:2511.03918 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 5 Nov 2025] Title:Controlled growth of rare-earth-doped TiO$_{2}$ thin films on III-V semiconductors for hybrid quantum photonic interfaces Authors:Henry C. Hammer, Caleb Whittier, Nathan A. Helvy, Christopher Rouleau, Nabil D. Bassim, Ravitej Uppu View a PDF of the paper titled Controlled growth of rare-earth-doped TiO$_{2}$ thin films on III-V semiconductors for hybrid quantum photonic interfaces, by Henry C. Hammer and 5 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Quantum photonic networks require two distinct functionalities: bright single-photon sources and long-lived quantum memories. III-V semiconductor quantum dots excel as deterministic and coherent photon emitters, while rare-earth ions such as erbium (Er$^{3+}$) in crystalline oxides offer exceptional spin and optical coherence at telecom wavelengths. Combining these systems and their functionalities via direct epitaxy is challenging due to lattice mismatch and incompatible growth conditions. Here we demonstrate low-temperature pulsed laser deposition of Er$^{3+}$-doped TiO$_{2}$ thin films directly on GaAs and GaSb substrates. Controlled surface preparation with an arsenic cap and an oxygen-deficient buffer layer enables the growth of epitaxial anatase TiO$_{2}$ (001) at 390$^{o}$C with sub-300 pm surface roughness, while avoiding interface degradation. In contrast, high-temperature oxide desorption or growth temperatures drive the transition to rough, polycrystalline rutile film, as confirmed by transmission electron microscopy. Minimal coincident interface area (MCIA) modeling explains the orientation-selective growth on GaAs and GaSb. Raman and cryogenic photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy verify the crystal phase and optical activation of Er$^{3+}$ ions. This multi-parameter growth strategy helps preserve III-V quantum dot functionality and yields smooth surfaces suitable for low-loss nanophotonic structures. Our results establish a materials platform for monolithically integrating rare-earth quantum memories with semiconductor photon sources, paving the way toward scalable hybrid quantum photonic chips. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci); Optics (physics.optics) Cite as: arXiv:2511.03918 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2511.03918v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2511.03918 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Henry Hammer [view email] [v1] Wed, 5 Nov 2025 23:42:09 UTC (22,608 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Controlled growth of rare-earth-doped TiO$_{2}$ thin films on III-V semiconductors for hybrid quantum photonic interfaces, by Henry C. Hammer and 5 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2025-11 Change to browse by: cond-mat cond-mat.mtrl-sci physics physics.optics References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) Links to Code Toggle Papers with Code (What is Papers with Code?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)