From Fabrication Disorder to Quantum-Protocol Yield in Inverse-Designed Silicon Photonic Beam Splitters
Abstract
Telecom-band silicon spin-photon qubits offer a promising platform for scalable quantum networks and distributed information processing, but their fixed emission wavelengths require compact, low-loss beam splitters with precise splitting and fabrication robustness. Conventional designs can face trade-offs between footprint, optical performance, and wavelength-specific operation. Here, we employ adjoint-based inverse design to optimize photonic geometries beyond conventional layouts, developing 1*2 Y-splitters and 2*2 directional couplers for the silicon T (1326 nm) and Al1 (1482.44 nm) spin-photon qubits. The devices achieve footprints of 2.9 and 26 um^2, respectively, with excess losses of 0.14-0.44 dB and back-reflection below 5*10^-4. We assess fabrication tolerance using 100-realization Monte Carlo simulations incorporating etch bias, line-edge roughness, thickness, and refractive-index variations. Mirror symmetry reduces the splitting-ratio spread of the Y-splitter by a factor of seven to nine relative to the directional coupler. We translate these variations into dual-rail fidelity, ideal splitting-ratio-limited Hong-Ou-Mandel visibility, and random-number min-entropy. All realizations satisfy a protocol-performance threshold of 0.95. At 0.99, the tolerated splitting-ratio deviation shrinks from 0.035 for visibility to 0.0035 for min-entropy, and the simulated yields are 68% (T) and 91% (Al1) for coupler visibility and 90% (T) and 66% (Al1) for Y-splitter min-entropy. The tolerance of the target protocol, rather than the device alone, therefore sets the fabrication requirement for silicon spin-photon beam splitters.
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BibTeX
@misc{letty2026from,
title = {{From Fabrication Disorder to Quantum-Protocol Yield in Inverse-Designed Silicon Photonic Beam Splitters}},
author = {Nail Letty and Tahmeed Ul Islam and Wayesh Qarony},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.02209},
eprint = {2611.02209},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.02209},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - From Fabrication Disorder to Quantum-Protocol Yield in Inverse-Designed Silicon Photonic Beam Splitters
AU - Nail Letty
AU - Tahmeed Ul Islam
AU - Wayesh Qarony
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/01
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.02209
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.02209
AB - Telecom-band silicon spin-photon qubits offer a promising platform for scalable quantum networks and distributed information processing, but their fixed emission wavelengths require compact, low-loss beam splitters with precise splitting and fabrication robustness. Conventional designs can face trade-offs between footprint, optical performance, and wavelength-specific operation. Here, we employ adjoint-based inverse design to optimize photonic geometries beyond conventional layouts, developing 1*2 Y-splitters and 2*2 directional couplers for the silicon T (1326 nm) and Al1 (1482.44 nm) spin-photon qubits. The devices achieve footprints of 2.9 and 26 um^2, respectively, with excess losses of 0.14-0.44 dB and back-reflection below 5*10^-4. We assess fabrication tolerance using 100-realization Monte Carlo simulations incorporating etch bias, line-edge roughness, thickness, and refractive-index variations. Mirror symmetry reduces the splitting-ratio spread of the Y-splitter by a factor of seven to nine relative to the directional coupler. We translate these variations into dual-rail fidelity, ideal splitting-ratio-limited Hong-Ou-Mandel visibility, and random-number min-entropy. All realizations satisfy a protocol-performance threshold of 0.95. At 0.99, the tolerated splitting-ratio deviation shrinks from 0.035 for visibility to 0.0035 for min-entropy, and the simulated yields are 68% (T) and 91% (Al1) for coupler visibility and 90% (T) and 66% (Al1) for Y-splitter min-entropy. The tolerance of the target protocol, rather than the device alone, therefore sets the fabrication requirement for silicon spin-photon beam splitters.
ER -