Single-photon Sources Research Articles

Heralded pure single-photon sources using nanophotonic waveguides with quadratic and cubic nonlinearities

This paper presents, to our knowledge, a new approach in developing integrated pure heralded single-photon sources based on the interplay between the spontaneous four-wave mixing and sum-frequency generation parametric processes. We introduce a comprehensive quantum model to exploit this interplay in AlGaAs and LiNbO3 nanophotonic waveguides. The developed model is used to assess the performance of the sources based on the photon-pair generation and the associated spectral purity. We find that this approach can remarkably improve the spectral purity of low-pure generated photon pairs, relaxing the restrictions on the structure design and the used pump wavelength. In addition, it overcomes the current hurdles in implementing on-chip photon detectors operating at room temperature, paving the way for advanced applications in integrated quantum photonics and information processing.

High-dimensional spin-orbital single-photon sources.

Hybrid integration of solid-state quantum emitters (QEs) into nanophotonic structures opens enticing perspectives for exploiting multiple degrees of freedom of single-photon sources for on-chip quantum photonic applications. However, the state-of-the-art single-photon sources are mostly limited to two-level states or scalar vortex beams. Direct generation of high-dimensional structured single photons remains challenging, being still in its infancy. Here, we propose a general strategy to design highly entangled high-dimensional spin-orbital single-photon sources by taking full advantage of the spatial freedom to design QE-coupled composite (i.e., Moiré/multipart) metasurfaces. We demonstrate the generation of arbitrary vectorial spin-orbital photon emission in high-dimensional Hilbert spaces, mapping the generated states on hybrid-order Bloch spheres. We further realize single-photon sources of high-dimensional spin-orbital quantum emission and experimentally verify the entanglement of high-dimensional superposition states with high fidelity. We believe that the results obtained facilitate further progress in integrated solutions for the deployment of next-generation high-capacity quantum information technologies.

Elucidating the Interplay between Symmetry Distortions in Passivated MAPbI3 and the Rashba Splitting Effect.

Hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites play a critical role in modern optoelectronic applications, particularly as single photon sources due to their unusual bright ground state. However, the presence of trap states resulting from surface dangling bonds hinders their widespread commercial application. This work uses density functional theory (DFT) to study the effects of various passivating ligands and their binding sites on Rashba splitting, a phenomenon directly linked to the bright ground state. Our results predict that X2- and X4-type ligands that adsorb at acidic oxygen binding sites and zwitterionic binding sites efficiently eliminate trap states introduced by surface iodine vacancies. Furthermore, our results show that distortions from the nominally symmetric cubic structure of the perovskite predominantly determine the presence and magnitude of the Rashba splitting. Specifically, the loss of more symmetry elements consistently leads to Rashba splitting in both the valence band (VB) and the conduction band (CB) with small Rashba splitting coefficients. Conversely, although inversion symmetry breaking alone fails to guarantee the presence of pure Rashba splitting in both the VB and the CB, it significantly increases the degree of splitting. The adsorption of ligands not only mitigates trap states but also plays a critical role in altering the local symmetry, thus influencing Rashba splitting. DFT predicts a distinct Rashba-Dresselhaus splitting in the CB with X2 ligands, causing the largest splitting. The presence of local electric fields causes consistent Rashba splitting of the VB across all studied systems except for the X4 zwitterionic passivated systems (sulfobetaine and lecithin). Electric fields are predicted to cause significant splitting of the CB, particularly for MAPbI3 and SH passivated MAPbI3 surfaces that possess freely rotating ligand binding sites. This study reveals that the wavelength, tunability of Rashba splitting through an applied electric field, and nature of Rashba-Dresselhaus splitting are influenced by the characteristics of the ligand binding site. On the other hand, pure Rashba splitting is predicted to exhibit a greater susceptibility to symmetry distortion than to specific ligand binding sites. These findings elucidate how surface passivating ligands and symmetry distortions influence Rashba splitting, shaping the optoelectronic properties of perovskite nanocrystals.

Highly Efficient Single Photon Coupling via Surface Plasmons into Single-Mode Optical Fiber

Quanta of light (single photon) play as one of the building blocks of photonic based quantum computations, sensing, and communications. This makes a necessity to develop practical approaches for tuning, guiding, and coupling of single photons in photonic circuits for viable applications. Interaction and coupling efficiency of single photon into optical fibers is a technical bottleneck of quantum optics and should be addressed by novel design and materials. Here, we introduce a fiber-based micro-photonic design to directly coupling of the emitted single-photon to the core of a single mode fiber (SMF). The results of the simulation indicate that the emission of single photon source on a D-shaped SMF coated by a thin plasmonic film, provide remarkable amplifying of the evanescent field by confined surface plasmons into the SMF. The numerical analysis of different types and thicknesses of plasmonic materials by finite element method (FEM) is conducted to study the propagation vectors along the SMF as a function of the emission angle and wavelength of the single photon source. The results revealed that by the optimum thickness of the tantalum layer as novel plasmonic material, the best record of coupling efficiency can be achieved in the fiber optics communication region (λ ∼ 1550 nm). This approach sheds light on novel plasmonic-assisted coupling and promises a functional strategy for single photon manipulation in various fields of quantum optics.

Xenon plasma-focused ion beam milling for fabrication of high-purity, bright single-photon sources operating in the C-band

Electron beam lithography is a standard method for fabricating photonic micro and nanostructures around semiconductor quantum dots (QDs), which are crucial for efficient single and indistinguishable photon sources in quantum information processing. However, this technique is difficult for direct 3D control of the structure shape, complicating the design and enlarging the 2D footprint to suppress in-plane photon leakage while directing photons into the collecting lens aperture. Here, we present an alternative approach to employ xenon plasma-focused ion beam (Xe-PFIB) technology as a reliable method for the 3D shaping of photonic structures containing low-density self-assembled InAs/InP quantum dots emitting in the C-band range of the 3rd telecommunication window. The method is optimized to minimize the possible ion-beam-induced material degradation, which allows exploration of both non-deterministic and deterministic fabrication approaches, resulting in photonic structures naturally shaped as truncated cones. As a demonstration, we fabricate mesas using a heterogeneously integrated structure with a QD membrane atop an aluminum mirror and silicon substrate. Finite-difference time-domain simulations show that the angled sidewalls significantly increase the emission collection efficiency to approx. 0.9 for NA = 0.65. We demonstrate experimentally a high purity of pulsed single-photon emission (∼99%) and a superior extraction efficiency value reported in the C-band of η = 24 ± 4%.

Heralded Generation of Correlated Photon Pairs from CdS/CdSe/CdS Quantum Shells.

Quantum information processing demands efficient quantum light sources (QLS) capable of producing high-fidelity single photons or entangled photon pairs. Single epitaxial quantum dots (QDs) have long been proven to be efficient sources of deterministic single photons; however, their production via molecular-beam epitaxy presents scalability challenges. Conversely, colloidal semiconductor QDs offer scalable solution processing and tunable photoluminescence, but suffer from broader linewidths and unstable emissions. This leads to spectrally inseparable emission from exciton (X) and biexciton (XX) states, complicating the production of single photons and triggered photon pairs. Here, we demonstrate that colloidal semiconductor quantum shells (QSs) achieve significant spectral separation (∼75-80 meV) and long temporal stability of X and XX emissive states, enabling the observation of exciton-biexciton bunching in colloidal QDs. Our low-temperature single-particle measurements show cascaded XX-X emission of single photon pairs for over 200 s, with minimal overlap between X and XX features. The X-XX distinguishability allows for an in-depth theoretical characterization of cross-correlation strength, placing it in perspective with photon pairs of epitaxial counterparts. These findings highlight a strong potential of semiconductor quantum shells for applications in quantum information processing.

Microresonator-enhanced quantum dot single-photon emission in GaAs-on-insulator platform

Abstract Single-photon emitters play a crucial role in integrated photonic quantum systems across various material platforms. In this study, we present a cavity-enhanced quantum dot single-photon source in a high-index contrast material platform (GaAs-on-insulator). A quantum dot is embedded in a microring resonator with a quality factor of approximately 9000, where the cavity-induced light enhancement results in a spontaneous emission acceleration factor of around 2.6, and we achieve a g(2)(0) as low as 0.03±0.02 and post-selected two-photon interference visibility of 51.7% ± 3.2% for the single-photon source. This demonstration shows the potential of the GaAs-on-insulator platform for scalable on-chip quantum information processing

Plasmonic Nanocavity to Boost Single Photon Emission From Defects in Thin Hexagonal Boron Nitride

AbstractEfficient and compact single photon emission platforms operating at room temperature with ultrafast speed and high brightness will be fundamental components of the emerging quantum communications and computing fields. However, so far, it is very challenging to design practical deterministic single photon emitters based on nanoscale solid‐state materials that meet the fast emission rate and strong brightness demands. Here, a solution is provided to this longstanding problem by using metallic nanocavities integrated with hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) flakes with defects acting as nanoscale single photon emitters (SPEs) at room temperature. The presented hybrid nanophotonic structure creates a rapid speedup and large enhancement in single photon emission at room temperature. Hence, the nonclassical light emission performance is substantially improved compared to plain hBN flakes and hBN on gold‐layered structures without nanocavity. Extensive theoretical calculations are also performed to accurately model the new hybrid nanophotonic system and prove that the incorporation of plasmonic nanocavity is key to efficient SPE performance. The proposed quantum nanocavity single photon source is expected to be an element of paramount importance to the envisioned room‐temperature integrated quantum photonic networks.

High-dimensional quantum key distribution using orbital angular momentum of single photons from a colloidal quantum dot at room temperature

High-dimensional quantum key distribution (HDQKD) is a promising avenue to address the inherent limitations of basic quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols. However, experimental realizations of HDQKD to date have relied on indeterministic photon sources that limit the achievable key rate. In this paper, we demonstrate a full emulation of a HDQKD system using a single colloidal giant quantum dot (gQD) as a deterministic, compact, and room-temperature single-photon source (SPS). We demonstrate a practical protocol by encoding information in a high-dimensional space (d = 3) of the orbital angular momentum of the photons. Our experimental configuration incorporates two spatial light modulators for encoding and decoding the spatial information carried by individual photons. Our experimental demonstration establishes the feasibility of utilizing high radiative quantum yield gQDs as practical SPSs for HDQKD. We also experimentally demonstrate surpassing the traditional d = 2 QKD capacity with comparable error rates, indicating a significant improvement in performance while maintaining reliability.

All-Epitaxial Self-Assembly of Silicon Color Centers Confined Within Sub-Nanometer Thin Layers Using Ultra-Low Temperature Epitaxy.

Silicon-based color-centers (SiCCs) have recently emerged as quantum-light sources that can be combined with telecom-range Si Photonics platforms. Unfortunately, using conventional SiCC fabrication schemes, deterministic control over the vertical emitter position is impossible due to the stochastic nature of the required ion-implantation(s). To overcome this bottleneck toward high-yield integration, a radically innovative creation method is demonstrated for various SiCCs with excellent optical quality, solely relying on the epitaxial growth of Si and C-doped Si at atypically-low temperatures in an ultra-clean growth environment. These telecom emitters can be confined within sub-nm thick epilayers embedded within a highly crystalline Si matrix at arbitrary vertical positions. Tuning growth conditions and doping, different well-known SiCC types can be selectively created, including W-centers, T-centers, G-centers, and, especially, a so far unidentified derivative of the latter, introduced as G'-center. The zero-phonon emission from G'-centers at ≈1300nm can be conveniently tuned by the C-concentration, leading to a systematic wavelength shift and linewidth narrowing toward low emitter densities, which makes both, the epitaxy-based fabrication and the G'-center particularly promising as integrable Si-based single-photon sources and spin-photon interfaces.

Circular Bragg grating single-photon source design exploiting extreme dielectric confinement

Abstract We theoretically propose a single-photon source design based on a circular Bragg grating microcavity incorporating two air triangles in a bowtie configuration. Our proposed design allows for extreme light confinement with a Purcell factor of approximately 166 with a bandwidth of ~9 nm for a triangle separation of 5 nm combined with a collection efficiency above 80 % . The Purcell factor is enhanced by a factor of 8 relative to the reference cavity thanks to the reduction of the mode volume. Furthermore, we demonstrate the critical role of the dipole emitter polarization orientation and spatial position in achieving optimal Purcell enhancement.

The dibenzoterrylene-C60 composite structure as a possible new single-photon source - growth and optical analysis

Abstract A sample fabrication approach based on organic molecular beam deposition creating a new molecule-based emitter structure and its optical analysis is presented. The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon dibenzoterrylene (DBT, C38H20) was deposited between layers of C60-fullerenes, which serve as a protective matrix. It was found that this structure maintains the DBT’s optical properties [1, 2], but a potentially quenching impact cannot be excluded. Raman spectra of the composite were collected proving the molecules’ preserved integrity after being evaporated at high temperatures. Finally, the results of confocal laser scanning microscopy show fluorescent molecular clusters.

A germanium-vacancy center in diamond as single-photon source for radiometric application

Abstract We present the metrological characterization of a single-photon source based on a germanium-vacancy center in diamond under a solid immersion lens in a confocal microscope setup at room temperature. It was characterized in terms of the emission’s spectral distribution, single-photon purity, temporal stability and the emitter’s excited state lifetime and saturation behavior. An Allan deviation analysis was performed on the emission of the single-photon source to determine the optimal averaging time of the photon flux. The single-photon source was used for the relative calibration of the detection efficiency of two single-photon avalanche diode detectors. The results were compared with measurements using attenuated laser light for the calibration of the detectors.

Synthesis, Development, and Evaluation Technologies of High-quality Quantum Dots

Reliable quantum dots are prerequisite to the development of quantum device assembly. It may serve as a single photon source that can be combined with the rest of the assembly for the delivery of the generated photon. This article briefly introduces the synthesis, development and evaluation technologies of high-quality quantum dots. Their applications in display and illumination areas in the form of remote components will also be briefly introduced.

One-dimensional photonic wire as a single-photon source: Implications of cavity QED to a phonon bath of reduced dimensionality

One-dimensional photonic wire as a single-photon source: Implications of cavity QED to a phonon bath of reduced dimensionality

One-Photon-Interference Quantum Secure Direct Communication.

Quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) is a quantum communication paradigm that transmits confidential messages directly using quantum states. Measurement-device-independent (MDI) QSDC protocols can eliminate the security loopholes associated with measurement devices. To enhance the practicality and performance of MDI-QSDC protocols, we propose a one-photon-interference MDI QSDC (OPI-QSDC) protocol which transcends the need for quantum memory, ideal single-photon sources, or entangled light sources. The security of our OPI-QSDC protocol has also been analyzed using quantum wiretap channel theory. Furthermore, our protocol could double the distance of usual prepare-and-measure protocols, since quantum states sending from adjacent nodes are connected with single-photon interference, which demonstrates its potential to extend the communication distance for point-to-point QSDC.

Purcell-Induced Bright Single Photon Emitters in Hexagonal Boron Nitride.

Single photon emitters (SPEs) in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) are elementary building blocks for room-temperature on-chip quantum photonic technologies. However, fundamental challenges, such as slow radiative decay and nondeterministic placement of the emitters, limit their full potential. Here, we demonstrate large-area arrays of plasmonic nanoresonators (PNRs) for Purcell-induced room-temperature SPEs by engineering emitter-cavity coupling and enhancing radiative emission. Gold-coated silicon pillars with an alumina spacer enable a 10-fold local-field enhancement in the emission band of native hBN defects. We observe bright SPEs with an average saturated emission rate surpassing 5 million counts per second, an average lifetime of <0.5 ns, and 29% yield. Density functional theory reveals the beneficial role of an alumina spacer between hBN and gold, mitigating the electronic broadening of emission from defects proximal to the metal. Our results offer arrays of bright, heterogeneously integrated single-photon sources, paving the way for robust and scalable quantum information systems.

Single-photon elimination in liquid scintillation counting with pulse shape discrimination and delayed coincidence

Liquid scintillation counting is widely used in the rapid measurement of beta activity in environmental and biological samples. However, the single-photons generated by chemiluminescence and photoluminescence in liquid scintillation cocktails seriously affect the measurement accuracy of low-energy beta activity. A novel method based on the combination of the signal characteristic analysis and selective gate to eliminate the single-photon signal was developed. A preprocessing circuit made of a fast response time photomultiplier tube (PMT, Hamamatsu R9420), two charge-sensitive preamplifiers (CSP), two comparators, an analog switch and delay-line devices were designed and developed to verify the feasibility and effectiveness. The output signals from the last dynode were characterized in the pulse time and were used to discriminate the beta signals from the single-photon ones. The beta signals were “tagged” through pulse width detection, pulse width-amplitude transform and pulse-height discrimination with the first comparator, the first CSP and the second comparator. The “tagged” beta signal were applied to control the analog switch. The anode signals were specially delayed and then selected by the analog switch to achieve the single-photon signal elimination. Liquid scintillation cocktails containing 14C or NaOH used as beta or single-photon sources were provided to verify the feasibility of the principle. The results showed that the typical fall time of the single-photon and beta signal was 16.05ns and 43.17ns. The single-photon rejection ratio is 2.76 × 10−3 ± 3.89 × 10−5, and the detection efficiency is up to 93.02%±0.59%.

Off-Normal Polarized Single-Photon Emission with Anisotropic Holography Metasurfaces.

Solid-state quantum emitters (QEs) with arbitrary direction emission and well-defined polarization are critical for scalable single-photon sources and quantum information processing. However, the design strategy for on-chip generation of off-normal photon emission with high-purity polarization characteristics has so far remained elusive. Here, we introduce the anisotropic holography metasurfaces for efficiently manipulating the emission direction and polarization of QE. The proposed method offers a flexible way to realize phase matching in surface plasmon scattering with spatially varying filling factors and provides an efficient route for designing advanced QE-coupled metasurfaces. By nonradiatively coupling nanodiamonds with metasurfaces, we experimentally demonstrate on-chip generation of well-collimated single-photon emission propagating along off-normal directions (i.e., 20° and 30°) featuring a divergence angle lower than 2.5°. The experimental average degree of linear polarization attains up to >0.98, thereby revealing markedly high polarization purity. This study facilitates applications of QEs in the deployment of integrated quantum networks.

SUPER excitation of quantum emitters is a multi-photon process

The swing-up of quantum emitter population (SUPER) scheme allows to populate the excited state of a quantum emitter with near-unity fidelity using two red-detuned laser pulses. Its off-resonant yet fully coherent nature has attracted significant interest in quantum photonics as a valuable tool for preparing single-photon sources in their excited state on demand while simultaneously ensuring straightforward spectral filtering of the laser. However, the physical understanding of this mechanism in terms of energy exchange between the electromagnetic field and the emitter is still lacking. Here, we present a fully quantized model of the swing-up excitation and demonstrate that it is in fact a multi-photon process, where one of the modes loses two or more photons while the other gains at least one. Our findings provide an unexpected physical interpretation of the SUPER scheme and unveil a new non-linear interaction between single emitters and multiple field modes.