Coupling of erbium dopants to yttrium orthosilicate photonic crystal cavities for on-chip optical quantum memories

Erbium dopants in crystals exhibit highly coherent optical transitions well suited for solid-state optical quantum memories operating in the telecom band. Here, we demonstrate coupling of erbium dopant ions in yttrium orthosilicate to a photonic crystal cavity fabricated directly in the host crystal using focused ion beam milling. The coupling leads to reduction of the photoluminescence lifetime and enhancement of the optical depth in microns-long devices, which will enable on-chip quantum memories.