Self-Assembled Nanocrystals of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Show Photostable Single-Photon Emission

Pazzagli, Sofia; Lombardi, Pietro; Martella, Daniele; Colautti, Maja; Tiribilli, Bruno; Cataliotti, F. S.; Toninelli, Costanza

doi:10.1021/acsnano.7b08810

Cited by 74 publications

(93 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…These characteristics are outstanding considering quantum emitters operated in the absence of optical cavities or local nano-structuring of the host material, especially in terms of the detected power in a given frequency interval. Indeed, according to the linewidth measurements reported in our previous works, [19] around 2/3 of the collected photon flux, that is, more than 0.9 × 10 6 photons/s, falls within a 50 MHz wide spectral window. It should be noted that the saturation curve reported in Figure 2b decays for very high pump powers.…”

Section: Metrological Characterization Of the Molecule-based Single-psupporting

confidence: 56%

“…This signal is then filtered in a bandwidth of about 2 nm around the wavelength

λ \approx

785 nm. In the inset of Figure a, the resulting spectrum appears limited by the spectrometer resolution (≈0.2 nm) and can be independently measured via excitation spectroscopy to be smaller than 100 MHz, that is, 1 pm . The measurements reported in the following sections are obtained in these operative conditions.…”

Section: Metrological Characterization Of the Molecule‐based Single‐pmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Molecule‐Based Single‐Photon Source Applied in Quantum Radiometry

et al. 2019

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Single‐photon sources (SPSs) based on quantum emitters hold promise in quantum radiometry as metrology standard for photon fluxes at the low light level. Ideally this requires control over the photon flux in a wide dynamic range, sub‐Poissonian photon statistics, and narrow‐band emission spectrum. In this work, a monochromatic SPS based on an organic dye molecule is presented, whose photon flux is traceably measured to be adjustable between 144 000 and 1320 000 photons per second at a wavelength of (785.6 ± 0.1) nm, corresponding to an optical radiant flux between 36.5 and 334 fW. The high purity of the single‐photon stream is verified, with a second‐order autocorrelation function at zero time delay below 0.1 throughout the whole range. Such molecule‐based SPS is hence used for the calibration of a single‐photon avalanche detector against a low‐noise analog photodiode traceable to the primary standard for optical radiant flux (i.e., the cryogenic radiometer). Due to the narrow bandwidth of the source, corrections to the detector efficiency arising from the spectral power distribution are negligible. With this major advantage, the developed device may finally realize a low‐photon‐flux standard source for quantum radiometry.

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Section: Metrological Characterization Of the Molecule-based Single-psupporting

confidence: 56%

“…This signal is then filtered in a bandwidth of about 2 nm around the wavelength

λ \approx

Section: Metrological Characterization Of the Molecule‐based Single‐pmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Molecule‐Based Single‐Photon Source Applied in Quantum Radiometry

et al. 2019

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“…Furthermore, we find that the deposition process required to integrate a transparent conducting oxide inhibits molecular fluorescence, which highlights the potential of 2D materials for integration with ultra-sensitive quantum emitters. At the same time, we show that a single quantum emitter can be used as a transducer of the 2D materials' electronic properties.We choose single dibenzoterrylene (DBT) molecules as bright, photostable single photon sources 32,33 emitting at 785 nm (1.58 eV) with lifetime-limited linewidth 34 (∼ 40 MHz) at 3 K even when hosted in a sub-micron environment 35 . Experimentally, we perform scanning laser spectroscopy to address individual DBT molecules at sub-wavelength separation to a 2D metallic or semiconducting interface.…”

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confidence: 99%

Electrical Control of Lifetime-Limited Quantum Emitters Using 2D Materials

et al. 2019

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Solid state quantum emitters are a mainstay of quantum nanophotonics as integrated single photon sources (SPS) and optical nanoprobes. Integrating such emitters with active nanophotonic elements is desirable in order to attain efficient control of their optical properties but typically degrades the photostability of the emitter itself. Here, we demonstrate a tuneable hybrid device that integrates lifetime-limited single emitters (linewidth ~ 40 MHz) and 2D materials at sub-wavelength separation without degradation of the emission properties. Our device's nanoscale dimensions enable ultra-broadband tuning (tuning range > 400 GHz) and fast modulation (frequency ~ 100 MHz) of the emission energy, which renders it an integrated, ultra-compact tuneable SPS. Conversely, this offers a novel approach to optical sensing of 2D material properties using a single emitter as a nanoprobe.Hybrid nanophotonic systems blend the strengths of distinct photonic elements to strongly enhance light-matter interactions 1 in integrated photonic circuits. In these systems, narrow-linewidth quantum light emitters play a key role as single photon sources (SPS) which interact with their nanoscale environment 2,3 . Controlling these interactions provides versatile SPS tuning 4 required for coupling quantum resources [5][6][7] . Integrating nanoscale light emitters with two-dimensional (2D) materials is motivated by the rich physics of near-field interactions 8 and new hybrid light-matter states 9,10 . This approach unites integrated solid-state SPS such as nitrogen vacancy centres 11 , quantum dots 12 and single molecules 13 with the diverse optoelectronic properties of 2D materials that facilitate emitting 14 , controlling [15][16][17] and detecting 18 light at the nanoscale. In such hybrid devices, quantum emitters can be integrated at sub-wavelength separation to the 2D interface to achieve efficient near-field coupling 8 , which modifies the emitter's radiative decay rate [19][20][21] or transition energy 22,23 . Recent experimental studies integrated 2D materials with ensembles of broadband emitters to demonstrate electrical 24-26 and electromechanical 27 tuning of the decay rate by controlling non-radiative energy transfer (nRET) or the energy flow to confined electromagnetic modes such as 2D polaritons 26,28 . Therefore, hybrids of 2D materials and SPS have the potential for in situ control of the conversion and channelling of single photons at the nanoscale. So far, these studies have been limited to ensembles and broad linewidth emitters. Integrating bright and narrow quantum emitters in such systems paves 2 the way towards a tuneable quantum light-matter interface, which is an essential ingredient for integrated quantum networks.Here, we demonstrate hybrid integration of 2D materials (semi-metallic graphene or semi-conducting MoS2) with single, lifetime-limited quantum emitters in nanocrystals to provide active emission control. Using the 2D materials as transparent electrodes, we show broadband Stark tuning of the emission energy o...

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“…Moreover, our resonator is fully fiber-integrated and alignment-free. It is therefore suitable for a large variety of emitters [4,[44][45][46][47][48][49] and, thanks to its implementation in a cryogenic environment without any loss in transmission, might also be used for the implementation of quantum hybrid systems [50,51].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nanofiber-based high-Q microresonator for cryogenic applications

Hütner¹,

Hoinkes²,

Becker³

et al. 2020

Opt. Express

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We demonstrate a cryo-compatible, fully fiber-integrated, alignment-free optical microresonator. The compatibility with low temperatures expands its possible applications to the wide field of solid-state quantum optics, where a cryogenic environment is often a requirement. At a temperature of 4.6 K we obtain a quality factor of (9.9 ± 0.7) × 10 6 . In conjunction with the small mode volume provided by the nanofiber, this cavity can be either used in the coherent dynamics or the fast cavity regime, where it can provide a Purcell factor of up to 15. Our resonator is therefore suitable for significantly enhancing the coupling between light and a large variety of different quantum emitters and due to its proven performance over a wide temperature range, also lends itself for the implementation of quantum hybrid systems. IntroductionAchieving efficient coupling between quantum emitters and light is an important goal of research in quantum communication and computation, sensor applications and fundamental studies. Such an efficient interaction can for example be realized by means of an optical cavity or by reducing the mode area of the light field to the size of the emitter's interaction cross-section. Optical nanofibers offer such a strong transverse confinement of the light field.This makes them a versatile tool for interfacing different types of emitters such as atoms [1-3], single molecules [4], quantum dots [5][6][7] and color centers in diamond [8,9]. For many proof-of-principle experiments, cold atoms were the emitters of choice as they represent a well-controlled and isolated system. However, the experimental overhead for a cold-atom set-up is significant and solid-state emitters are much more suitable for practical and scalable platforms for quantum networks or nanosensors [10,11].Yet, the optical transitions of solid state emitters also couple to the phononic degrees of freedom of the system, leading to dephasing and inelastic scattering. In order to avoid this problem, the phonons of the system have to be frozen out and the branching ratio of emission into the coherent zero-phonon line has to be maximized. Further, cryogenic temperatures may be required to be able to spectrally address individual solid state emitters in the case, where many are present in the same host system [4]. This calls for a cryo-compatible optical microresonator with high quality factor, Q, that selectively accelerates the desired optical transition via the Purcell effect [12][13][14][15].Here, we show that a fully fiber-based optical microresonator that consists of a tapered optical fiber with two integrated fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) [16,17], as demonstrated in [18], can be employed at cryogenic temperatures. In particular, we confirm that a high Q factor prevails after contact gas-cooling from room temperature to liquid helium temperature. Consequently, the resonator is still compatible with reaching the strong coupling regime. Furthermore, for usage at cryogenic temperatures, the alignment-free character of our resonator represen...

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Self-Assembled Nanocrystals of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Show Photostable Single-Photon Emission

Cited by 74 publications

References 70 publications

A Molecule‐Based Single‐Photon Source Applied in Quantum Radiometry

A Molecule‐Based Single‐Photon Source Applied in Quantum Radiometry

Electrical Control of Lifetime-Limited Quantum Emitters Using 2D Materials

Nanofiber-based high-Q microresonator for cryogenic applications

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