Localised excitation of a single photon source by a nanowaveguide

• Main Authors: Geng, Wei, Manceau, Mathieu, Rahbany, Nancy, Sallet, Vincent, De Vittorio, Massimo, Carbone, Luigi, Glorieux, Quentin, Bramati, Alberto, Couteau, Christophe
• Other Authors: School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering; Single Photons and Quantum Effects; Nanowires
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/86582; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/46689
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Nowadays, integrated photonics is a key technology in quantum information processing (QIP) but achieving all-optical buses for quantum networks with efficient integration of single photon emitters remains a challenge. Photonic crystals and cavities are good candidates but do not tackle how to effectively address a nanoscale emitter. Using a nanowire nanowaveguide, we realise an hybrid nanodevice which locally excites a single photon source (SPS). The nanowire acts as a passive or active sub-wavelength waveguide to excite the quantum emitter. Our results show that localised excitation of a SPS is possible and is compared with free-space excitation. Our proof of principle experiment presents an absolute addressing efficiency ηa ~ 10−4 only ~50% lower than the one using free-space optics. This important step demonstrates that sufficient guided light in a nanowaveguide made of a semiconductor nanowire is achievable to excite a single photon source. We accomplish a hybrid system offering great potentials for electrically driven SPSs and efficient single photon collection and detection, opening the way for optimum absorption/emission of nanoscale emitters. We also discuss how to improve the addressing efficiency of a dipolar nanoscale emitter with our system.