Hybrid plasmonic waveguide coupling of photons from a single molecule

Abstract

We demonstrate the emission of photons from a single molecule into a hybrid gap plasmon waveguide (HGPW). Crystals of anthracene, doped with dibenzoterrylene (DBT), are grown on top of the waveguides. We investigate a single DBT molecule coupled to the plasmonic region of one of the guides, and determine its in-plane orientation, excited state lifetime and saturation intensity. The molecule emits light into the guide, which is remotely out-coupled by a grating. The second-order autocorrelation and cross-correlation functions show that the emitter is a single molecule and that the light emerging from the grating comes from that molecule. The coupling efficiency is found to be β W G = 11.6(1.5)%. This type of structure is promising for building new functionality into quantum-photonic circuits, where localised regions of strong emitter-guide coupling can be interconnected by low-loss dielectric guides.

Phonon-Induced Optical Dephasing in Single Organic Molecules

“…Closer analysis reveals temperature dependent homogeneous broadening of the ZPL, which in our model arises from anharmonicity captured by second order electronphonon coupling terms in our Hamiltonian. These findings have implications for experimental efforts aimed at designing photonic structures to enhance the efficiency and purity of DBT emission [20][21][22][23][24]. Moreover, the DBTanthracene crystal is an exemplary open quantum system in its own right, and could be used to test fundamental non-equilibrium concepts such as non-Markovianity.…”

Polymer-encapsulated organic nanocrystals for single photon emission

“…We have demonstrated the viability of using nanocapsules for this by embedding them into a thin film of TiO 2 . This material has shown promise for nanophotonic structures thanks to its high refractive index, which have enabled demonstrations of evanescent coupling of DBT molecules [4,6,7]. A larger waveguide coupling is expected if one could embed molecules directly into the structure [32].…”

“…Specifically, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons encased in organic crystals have been shown to generate photons of high purity that show potential for use in applications that exploit the single photon nature of their emission [2][3][4]. These molecules can be processed at ambient temperature [5] and can be readily incorporated into photonic structures [6][7][8]. Many of the desirable properties, including ease of manufacture, are due to weak van der Waals bonding in aromatic crystals, which while useful can lead to experimental difficulties.…”

Multiplexed Single Photons from Deterministically Positioned Nanowire Quantum Dots

“…Visions of fully integrated quantum photonic chips, which require on-demand indistinguishable single-photon generation integrated on chip with low-loss directional couplers, phase shifters, filters, and singlephoton detectors, have been presented [1][2][3][4]. On-chip integration of solid-state emitters such as color centers in diamond [5][6][7][8], molecules [9,10], two-dimensional materials [11][12][13][14], and III-V semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) [15][16][17][18][19][20][21], are particularly promising for these applications. As solid-state emitters reach maturity, the next logical step is to interface these sources with larger quantum photonic architectures to promote the scalability and realization of multipartite quantum-information protocols [22].…”