The radiative decay of quantum dot (QD) excitons into surface plasmons in a cylindrical nanowire is investigated theoretically. Maxwell's equations with appropriate boundary conditions are solved numerically to obtain the dispersion relations of surface plasmons. The radiative decay rate of QD excitons is found to be greatly enhanced at certain values of the exciton bandgap. Analogous to the decay of a two-level atom in the photonic crystal, we first point out that such an enhanced phenomenon allows one to examine the non-Markovian dynamics of the QD exciton. Besides, due to the one dimensional propagating feature of nanowire surface plasmons, remote entangled states can be generated via super-radiance and may be useful in future quantum information processing.
We investigate coherent single surface-plasmon transport in a metal nanowire strongly coupled to two colloidal quantum dots. Analytical expressions are obtained for the transmission and reflection coefficients by solving the corresponding eigenvalue equation. Remote entanglement of the wave functions of the two quantum dots can be created if the inter-dot distance is equal to a multiple half-wavelength of the surface plasmon. Furthermore, by applying classical laser pulses to the quantum dots, the entangled states can be stored in metastable states which are decoupled from the surface plasmons…
We develop an architecture for distributed quantum computation using quantum bus of plasmonic circuits and spin qubits in self-assembled quantum dots. Deterministic quantum gates between two distant spin qubits can be reached by using an adiabatic approach in which quantum dots couple with highly detuned plasmon modes in a metallic nanowire. Plasmonic quantum bus offers a robust and scalable platform for quantum optics experiments and the development of on-chip quantum networks composed of various quantum nodes, such as quantum dots, molecules and nanoparticles.
Single plasmon transport in one dimensional nanowire
Université Bourgogne Europe, CNRS, Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne ICB UMR 6303（勃艮第欧洲大学，法国国家科学研究中心，勃艮第卡诺跨学科实验室）；Université Marie et Louis Pasteur, CNRS, Institut FEMTO-ST UMR 6174（玛丽和路易·巴斯德大学，法国国家科学研究中心，FEMTO-ST研究所）
Successful exploitations of strongly confined surface plasmon-polaritons critically rely on their efficient and rapid conversion to lossless channels. We demonstrate a simple, robust, and broad-band butt-coupling technique for connecting a metallic nanowire and a dielectric nanofiber. Conversion efficiencies above 95% in the visible and close to 100% in the near infrared can be achieved with realistic parameters. Moreover, by combining butt-coupling with nanofocusing, we propose a broad-band high-throughput near-field optical microscope.
We report on the observation of coupling a single nitrogen vacancy (NV) center in a nanodiamond crystal to a propagating plasmonic mode of silver nanowires. The nanocrystal is placed either near to the apex of a single silver nanowire or in the gap between two end-to-end aligned silver nanowires. We observe an enhancement of the NV-centers' decay rate in both cases as a result of the coupling to the plasmons. The devices are nano-assembled with a scanning probe technique. Through simulations, we show that end-to-end aligned silver nanowires can be used as a controllable splitter for emission f…
Coupling of an atom-like emitter to surface plasmons provides a path toward significant optical nonlinearity, which is essential in quantum information processing and quantum networks. A large coupling strength requires nanometer-scale positioning accuracy of the emitter near the surface of the plasmonic structure, which is challenging. We demonstrate the coupling of single localized defects in a tungsten diselenide (WSe2) monolayer self-aligned to the surface plasmon mode of a silver nanowire. The silver nanowire induces a strain gradient on the monolayer at the overlapping area, leading to t…
A bound state between a quantum emitter (QE) and surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) can be formed, where the QE is partially stabilized in its excited state. We put forward a general approach for calculating the energy level shift at a negative frequency $ω$, which is just the negative of the nonresonant part for the energy level shift at positive frequency $-ω$. We also propose an efficient formalism for obtaining the long-time value of the excited-state population without calculating the eigenfrequency of the bound state or performing a time evolution of the system, in which the probability a…
Placing a quantum dot close to a metal nanowire leads to drastic changes in its radiative decay behavior because of evanescent couplings to surface plasmons. We show how two non-Markovian effects, band-edge and retardation, could be observed in such a system. Combined with a quantum dot p-i-n junction, these effects could be readout via current-noise measurements. We also discuss how these effects can occur in similar systems with restricted geometries, like phononic cavities and photonic crystal waveguides. This work links two previously separate topics: surface-plasmons and current-noise mea…
The control of quantum states of light at the nanoscale has become possible in recent years with the use of plasmonics. Here, many types of nanophotonic devices and applications have been suggested that take advantage of quantum optical effects, despite the inherent presence of loss. A key example is quantum plasmonic sensing, which provides sensitivity beyond the classical limit using entangled N00N states and their generalizations in a compact system operating below the diffraction limit. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate the excitation and propagation of a two-plasmon entangled N0…
We propose a system for guiding plasmon-enhanced polarized single photons into optical nanowire (ONW) guided modes. It is shown that spontaneous emission properties of quantum emitters (QEs) can be strongly enhanced in the presence of gold nanorod dimer (GNRD) leading to the emission of highly polarized and bright single photons. We have calculated that a high Purcell factor of 279, coupling efficiency of 11 %, and degree of polarization (DOP) of single photons is estimated to be as high as 99.57% in the guided modes of ONW by suitably placing a QE on an optimized location of the GNRD system. …
The spectrum width can be narrowed to a certain degree by decreasing the coupling strength for the two-level emitter coupled to the propagating surface plasmon. But the width can not be narrowed any further because of the loss of the photon out of system by spontaneous emission from the emitter. Here we propose a new scheme to construct a narrow-band source via a one-dimensional waveguide coupling with a three-level emitter. It is shown that the reflective spectrum width can be narrowed avoiding the impact of the loss. This approach opens up the possibility of plasmonic ultranarrow single-phot…
Ultrabroad resonance of localized plasmon on a nanoparticle coupled with surface plasmon on a nanowire enabling two-photon excited emission via continuous-wave laser
We demonstrate propagation of plasmons in single crystalline silver nanostructures fabricated using a combination of a bottom-up and a top-down approach. Silver nanoplates of thickness around 65 nm and a surface area of about 100 μm^2 are made using a wet chemical method. Silver nanotips and nanowires are then sculptured by focused ion beam milling. The plasmons are excited by using the fluorescence from the redeposited silver clusters during the milling process. Propagation of plasmons in the nanowires is observed in the visible spectral region. We also observe a cavity effect by measuring th…
We introduce a method for calculating the dielectric function of nanostructures with an arbitrary band dispersion and Bloch wave functions. The linear response of a dissipative electronic system to an external electromagnetic field is calculated by a self-consistent-field approach within a Markovian master equation formalism (SCF-MMEF) coupled with full-wave electromagnetic equations. The SCF-MMEF accurately accounts for several concurrent scattering mechanisms. The method captures interband electron-hole-pair generation, as well as the interband and intraband electron scattering with phonons …
We study theoretically the bio-sensing capabilities of metal nanowire surface plasmons. As a specific example, we couple the nanowire to specific sites (bacteriochlorophyll) of the Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) photosynthetic pigment protein complex. In this hybrid system, we find that when certain sites of the FMO complex are subject to either the suppression of inter-site transitions or are entirely disconnected from the complex, the resulting variations in the excitation transfer rates through the complex can be monitored through the corresponding changes in the scattering spectra of the incid…
We investigate theoretically the non-Markovian dynamics of a degenerate V-type quantum emitter in the vicinity of a metallic nanosphere, a system that exhibits quantum interference in spontaneous emission due to the anisotropic Purcell effect. We calculate numerically the electromagnetic Green's tensor and employ the effective modes differential equation method for calculating the quantum dynamics of the emitter population, with respect to the resonance frequency and the initial state of the emitter, as well as its distance from the nanosphere. We find that the emitter population evolution var…
Usually, the liner waveguides with single quantum emitters are utilized as routers to construct the quantum network in quantum information processings. Here, we investigate the influence of the nonlinear dispersion on quantum routing of single surface plasmons, between two metal nanowires with a pair of quantum dots. By using a full quantum theory in real space, we obtain the routing probabilities of a single surface plasmon into the four outports of two plasmonic waveguides scattered by a pair of quantum dots. It is shown that, by properly designing the inter-dot distance and the dot-plasmon …
We demonstrate the coupling of a single nitrogen vacancy center in a nanodiamond to propagating plasmonic modes of mechanically etched silver nanowires. The mechanical etch is performed on single crystalline silver nanoplates by the tip of an atomic force microscope cantilever to produce wires with pre-designed lengths. We show that single plasmon propgation can be obtained in these wires, thus making these structures a platform for quantum information processing.
It is well known that light quanta (photons) can interact with each other in nonlinear media, much like massive particles do, but in practice these interactions are usually very weak. Here we describe a novel approach to realize strong nonlinear interactions at the single-photon level. Our method makes use of recently demonstrated efficient coupling between individual optical emitters and tightly confined, propagating surface plasmon excitations on conducting nanowires. We show that this system can act as a nonlinear two-photon switch for incident photons propagating along the nanowire, which …
We propose to detect non-Markovian decay of an exciton qubit coupled to multi-mode bosonic reservoir via shot-noise measurements. Non-equilibrium current noise is calculated for a quantum dot embedded inside a \QTR{it}{p-i-n} junction. An additional term from non-Markovian effect is obtained in the derivation of noise spectrum. As examples, two practical photonic reservoirs, photon vacuum with the inclusion of cut-off frequency and surface plasmons, are given to show that the noise may become super-Poissonian due to this non-Markovian effect. Utilizing the property of super-radiance is further…
We investigate the optomechanical interaction between light and metallic nanowires through the action of bolometric forces. We show that the response time of the photothermal forces induced on the nanowire is fast and the strength of the interaction can overcome the radiation pressure force. Furthermore, we suggest the photothermal forces can be enhanced by surface plasmon excitation to cool the sub-megahertz vibrational modes of the nanowires close to its quantum limit.
We propose and demonstrate a new approach for achieving strong light-matter interactions with quantum emitters. Our approach makes use of a plasmon resonator composed of defect-free, highly crystalline silver nanowires surrounded by patterned dielectric distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs). These resonators have an effective mode volume (Veff) two orders of magnitude below the diffraction limit and quality factor (Q) approaching 100, enabling enhancement of spontaneous emission rates by a factor exceeding 75 at the cavity resonance. We also show that these resonators can be used to convert a br…
Single surface plasmon polaritons are excited using photons generated via spontaneous parametric down-conversion. The mean excitation rates, intensity correlations and Fock state populations are studied. The observed dependence of the second order coherence in our experiment is consistent with a linear uncorrelated Markovian environment in the quantum regime. Our results provide important information about the effect of loss for assessing the potential of plasmonic waveguides for future nanophotonic circuitry in the quantum regime.
We consider theoretically the spaser excited electrically via a nanowire with ballistic quantum conductance. We show that in the extreme quantum regime, i.e., for a single conductance-quantum nanowire, the spaser with the core made of common plasmonic metals, such as silver and gold, is fundamentally possible. For ballistic nanowires with multiple-quanta or non-quantized conductance, the performance of the spaser is enhanced in comparison with the extreme quantum limit. The electrically-pumped spaser is promising as an optical source, nanoamplifier, and digital logic device for optoelectronic …
We propose a method that enables strong, coherent coupling between individual optical emitters and electromagnetic excitations in conducting nano-structures. The excitations are optical plasmons that can be localized to sub-wavelength dimensions. Under realistic conditions, the tight confinement causes optical emission to be almost entirely directed into the propagating plasmon modes via a mechanism analogous to cavity quantum electrodynamics. We first illustrate this result for the case of a nanowire, before considering the optimized geometry of a nanotip. We describe an application of this t…
