The controlled and accurate emission of coherent electronic wave packets is of prime importance for future applications of nano-scale electronics. Here we present a theoretical and experimental analysis of the finite-frequency noise spectrum of a periodically driven single electron emitter. The electron source consists of a mesoscopic capacitor that emits single electrons and holes into a chiral edge state of a quantum Hall sample. We compare experimental results with two complementary theoretical descriptions: On one hand, the Floquet scattering theory which leads to accurate numerical results for the noise spectrum under all relevant operating conditions. On the other hand, a semi-classical model which enables us to develop an analytic description of the main sources of noise when the emitter is operated under optimal conditions. We find excellent agreement between experiment and theory. Importantly, the noise spectrum provides us with an accurate description and characterization of the mesoscopic capacitor when operated as a periodic single electron emitter.
We have analyzed the shot noise of electron emission under strong applied electric fields within the Landauer-Buttiker scheme. In contrast to the previous studies of vacuum-tube emitters, we show that in new generation electron emitters, scaled down to the nanometer dimensions, shot noise much smaller than the Schottky noise is observable. Carbon nanotube field emitters are among possible candidates to observe the effect of shot-noise suppression caused by quantum partitioning.
We derive the symmetrized current-noise spectrum of a quantum dot, which is weakly tunnel-coupled to an electron reservoir and driven by a slow time-dependent gate voltage. This setup can be operated as an on-demand emitter of single electrons into a mesoscopic conductor. By extending a real-time diagrammatic technique which is perturbative in the tunnel coupling, we obtain the time-resolved finite-frequency noise as well as its decomposition into noise harmonics in the presence of both strong Coulomb interaction and slow time-dependent driving. We investigate the noise over a large range of f…
I analyze the correlation function of currents generated by the periodically driven quantum capacitor emitting single electrons and holes into the chiral waveguide. I compare adiabatic and non-adiabatic, transient working regimes of a single-electron emitter and find the striking difference between the correlation functions in two regimes. Quite generally for the system driven with frequency $Ω$ the correlation function depends on two frequencies, $ω$ and $\ell Ω- ω$, where $\ell$ is an integer. For the emitter driven non-adiabatically the correlation functions for different $\ell$ are similar…
To analyze the state of injected carrier streams of different electron sources, we propose to use correlation measurements at a quantum point contact with the different sources connected via chiral edge states to the two inputs. In particular we consider the case of an on-demand single-electron emitter correlated with the carriers incident from a biased normal reservoir, a contact subject to an alternating voltage and a stochastic single electron emitter. The correlation can be viewed as a spectroscopic tool to compare the states of injected particles of different sources. If at the quantum po…
We review the latest progress in understanding the fundamental noise properties of a coherent single electron emitter known as the mesoscopic capacitor. The system consists of a sub-micron cavity connected to a two-dimensional electron gas via a quantum point contact. When subject to periodic gate voltage modulations, the mesoscopic capacitor absorbs and re-emits single electrons at giga-hertz frequencies as it has been demonstrated experimentally. Recent high-frequency noise measurements have moreover allowed for a precise characterization of the device in different operating regimes. Here we…
Modified Langevin noise formalism for multiple quantum emitters in dispersive electromagnetic environments out of equilibrium
Scuola Superiore Meridionale（南方高等学院）；Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II（那不勒斯费德里科二世大学电气与信息工程学院）
We study theoretically the optical response of a nanohybrid comprising a symmetric quantum dimer emitter coupled to a metal nanoparticle (MNP). The interactions between the exitonic transitions in the dimer and the plasmons in the MNP lead to novel effects in the composite's input-output characteristics for the light intensity and the absorption spectrum, which we study in the linear and nonlinear regimes. We fnd that the exciton-plasmon hybridization leads to optical bistability and hysteresis for the one-exciton transition and enhancement of excitation for the two-exciton transition. The lat…
We study theoretically the nonlinear optical properties of a semiconductor quantum well (QW) irradiated by a two-mode electromagnetic wave consisting of a strong resonant dressing field and a weak off-resonant driving field. In the considered strongly coupled electron-field system, the dressing field opens dynamic Stark gaps in the electron energy spectrum of the QW, whereas the driving field induces electron oscillations in the QW plane. Since the gapped electron spectrum restricts the amplitude of the oscillations, the emission of a frequency comb from the QW appears. Therefore, the doubly-d…
We investigate the noise properties of a zero-dimensional InAs quantum dot (QD) embedded in a GaAs-AlAs-GaAs tunneling structure. We observe an approximately linear dependence of the Fano factor and the current as function of bias voltage. Both effects can be linked to the scanning of the 3-dimensional emitter density of states by the QD. At the current step the shape of the Fano factor is mainly determined by the Fermi function of the emitter electrons. The observed voltage and temperature dependence is compared to the results of a master equation approach.
Newly discovered van der Waals materials like MoS$_2$, WSe$_2$, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), and recently $\mathrm{C}_2\mathrm{N}$ have sparked intensive research to unveil the quantum behavior associated with their 2D structure. Of great interest are 2D materials that host single quantum emitters. h-BN, with a band gap of 5.95 eV, has been shown to host single quantum emitters which are stable at room temperature in the UV and visible spectral range. In this paper we investigate correlations between h-BN structural features and emitter location from bulk down to the monolayer at room tempe…
We study the real-time emission of single electrons from a quantum dot coupled to a one dimensional conductor, using exact diagonalization on a discrete tight-binding chain. We show that from the calculation of the time-evolution of the one electron states, we have a simple access to all the relevant physical quantities in the system. In particular, we are able to compute accurately the finite frequency current autocorrelation noise. The method which we use is general and versatile, allowing to study the impact of many different parameters like the dot transparency or level position. Our resul…
We propose a device consisting in an antidot periodically driven in time by a magnetic field as a fractional quantum Hall counterpart of the celebrated mesoscopic capacitor-based single electron source. We fully characterize the setup as an ideal emitter of individual quasiparticles and electrons into fractional quantum Hall edge channels of the Laughlin sequence. Our treatment relies on a master equation approach and identifies the optimal regime of operation for both types of sources. The quasiparticle/quasihole emission regime involves in practice only two charge states of the antidot, allo…
We propose a single-particle source which emits into the helical edge states of a two-dimensional quantum spin Hall insulator. Without breaking time-reversal symmetry, this source acts like a pair of noiseless single-electron emitters which each inject separately into a chiral edge state. By locally breaking time-reversal symmetry, the source becomes a proper single-particle emitter which exhibits shot noise. Due to its intrinsic helicity, this system can be used to produce time-bin entangled pairs of electrons in a controlled manner. The shot noise created by the source is related to the conc…
We develop a theoretical framework to describe the scattering of photons against a two-level quantum emitter with arbitrary correlated dephasing noise. This is particularly relevant to waveguide-QED setups with solid-state emitters, such as superconducting qubits or quantum dots, which couple to complex dephasing environments in addition to the propagating photons along the waveguide. Combining input-output theory and stochastic methods, we predict the effect of correlated dephasing in single-photon transmission experiments with weak coherent inputs. We discuss homodyne detection and photon co…
We propose a mesoscopic circuit in the quantum Hall effect regime comprising two uncorrelated single-particle sources and two distant Mach-Zehnder interferometers with magnetic fluxes, which allows in a controllable way to produce orbitally entangled electrons. Two-particle correlations appear as a consequence of erasing of which path information due to collisions taking place at distant interferometers and in general at different times. The two-particle correlations manifest themselves as an Aharonov-Bohm effect in noise while the current is insensitive to magnetic fluxes. In an appropriate t…
Recent observation of quantum emitters in monolayers of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) has provided a novel platform for optomechanical experiments where the single-photon emitters can couple to the motion of freely suspended h-BN membrane. Here, we propose a scheme where the electronic degree of freedom of an embedded color center is coupled to the motion of the hosting h-BN resonator via dispersive forces. We show that the coupling of membrane vibrations to the electronic degree of freedom of the emitter can reach the strong regime. By suitable driving of a three-level $Λ$-system composed of…
Single-photon sources are of paramount importance in quantum communication, quantum computation, and quantum metrology. In particular, there is great interest in realizing scalable solid-state platforms that can emit triggered photons on demand to achieve scalable nanophotonic networks. We report on a visible-spectrum single-photon emitter in 4H silicon carbide (SiC). The emitter is photostable at room and low temperatures, enabling photon counts per second in excess of 2$\times$10$^6$ from unpatterned bulk SiC. It exists in two orthogonally polarized states, which have parallel absorption and…
Using non-equilibrium Green functions we calculate the spin-polarized current and shot noise in a ferromagnet--quantum-dot--ferromagnet (FM-QD-FM) system. Both parallel (P) and antiparallel (AP) magnetic configurations are considered. Coulomb interaction and coherent spin-flip (similar to a transverse magnetic field) are taken into account within the dot. We find that the interplay between Coulomb interaction and spin accumulation in the dot can result in a bias-dependent current polarization $\wp$. In particular, $\wp$ can be suppressed in the P alignment and enhanced in the AP case depending…
An ultra-broadband THz emitter covering a wide range of frequencies from 0.1 to 10 THz is highly desired for spectroscopy applications. So far, spintronic THz emitters have been proven as one class of efficient THz sources with a broadband spectrum while the performance in the lower frequency range (0.1 to 0.5 THz) limits its applications. In this work, we demonstrate a novel concept of a current-enhanced broad spectrum from spintronic THz emitters combined with semiconductor materials. We observe a 2-3 order enhancement of the THz signals in a lower THz frequency range (0.1 to 0.5 THz), in ad…
A portion of the electromagnetic wave spectrum between $\sim 0.1$ and $\sim 10$ terahertz (THz) suffers from the lack of powerful, effective, easy-to-use and inexpensive emitters, detectors and mixers. We propose a multilayer graphene -- boron-nitride heterostructure which is able to emit radiation in the frequency range $\sim 0.1-30$ THz with the power density up to $\sim 0.5$ W/cm$^2$ at room temperature. The proposed device is extremely thin, light, flexible, almost invisible and may completely cover the needs of science and technology in the sources of terahertz radiation.
We study the incandescence of a semiconductor system characterized by a radiatively broadened material excitation. We show that the shape of the emission spectrum and the peak emissivity value are determined by the ratio between radiative and non-radiative relaxation rates of the material mode. Our system is a heavily doped quantum well, exhibiting a collective bright electronic excitation in the mid-infrared. The spontaneous emission rate of this collective mode strongly depends on the emission direction and, uncommonly for a solid-state system, can dominate non-radiative scattering processes…
We investigate theoretically the generation of indistinguishable single photons from a strongly dissipative quantum system placed inside an optical cavity. The degree of indistinguishability of photons emitted by the cavity is calculated as a function of the emitter-cavity coupling strength and the cavity linewidth. For a quantum emitter subject to strong pure dephasing, our calculations reveal that an unconventional regime of high indistinguishability can be reached for moderate emittercavity coupling strengths and high quality factor cavities. In this regime, the broad spectrum of a dissipat…
We show that to correctly describe the ultrafast currents in spintronic THz emitters it is necessary to take charge equilibration into account. The charge current which is locally induced by a fs laser pulse and the inverse spin-Hall effect (ISHE) leads to ultrafast charging phenomena at the edge of the illuminated area. Subsequent discharging leads to a current backflow with a delay and a time constant that mainly depends on the conductivity of the emitter. On the one hand, only this delayed charge equilibration allows the detection of the primary current pulse via THz emission because an ins…
Engineering the coupling between fundamental quantum excitations is at the heart of quantum science and technologies. A significant case is the creation of quantum light sources in which coupling between single photons and phonons can be controlled and harnessed to enable quantum information transduction. Here, we report the deterministic creation of quantum emitters featuring highly tunable coupling between excitons and phonons. The quantum emitters are formed in strain-induced quantum dots created in homobilayer semiconductor WSe2. The colocalization of quantum confined interlayer excitons a…
Applications of quantum science to computing, cryptography and imaging are on their way to becoming key next generation technologies. Owing to the high-speed transmission and exceptional noise properties of photons, quantum photonic architectures are likely to play a central role. A long-standing hurdle, however, has been the realization of robust, device-compatible single photon sources that can be activated and controlled on demand. Here we use strain engineering to create large arrays of quantum emitters in two-dimensional hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). The large energy gap inherent to this…
Strong coupling between a single quantum emitter and an electromagnetic mode is one of the key effects in quantum optics. In the cavity QED approach to plasmonics, strongly coupled systems are usually understood as single-transition emitters resonantly coupled to a single radiative plasmonic mode. However, plasmonic cavities also support non-radiative (or "dark") modes, which offer much higher coupling strengths. On the other hand, realistic quantum emitters often support multiple electronic transitions of various symmetry, which could overlap with higher order plasmonic transitions -- in the …
The regime of strong light-matter coupling is typically associated with weak excitation. With current realizations of cavity-QED systems, strong coupling may persevere even at elevated excitation levels sufficient to cross the threshold to lasing. In the presence of stimulated emission, the vacuum-Rabi doublet in the emission spectrum is modified and the established criterion for strong coupling no longer applies. We provide a generalized criterion for strong coupling and the corresponding emission spectrum, which includes the influence of higher Jaynes-Cummings states. The applicability is de…
Single photon emitters play a central role in many photonic quantum technologies. A promising class of single photon emitters consists of atomic color centers in wide-bandgap crystals, such as diamond silicon carbide and hexagonal boron nitride. However, it is currently not possible to grow these materials as sub-micron thick films on low-refractive index substrates, which is necessary for mature photonic integrated circuit technologies. Hence, there is great interest in identifying quantum emitters in technologically mature semiconductors that are compatible with suitable heteroepitaxies. Her…
Color centers in solid state crystals have become a frequently used system for single photon generation, advancing the development of integrated photonic devices for quantum optics and quantum communication applications. In particular, defects hosted by two-dimensional (2D) hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) are a promising candidate for next-generation single photon sources, due to its chemical and thermal robustness and high brightness at room temperature. The 2D crystal lattice of hBN allows for a high extraction efficiency and easy integration into photonic circuits. Here we develop plasma etch…
Integrated photonic circuits are an integral part of all-optical and on-chip quantum information processing and quantum computer. Deterministically integrated single-photon sources in nanoplasmonic circuits lead to densely packed scalable quantum logic circuits operating beyond the diffraction limit. Here, we report the coupling efficiency of single-photon sources to the plasmonic waveguide, characteristic transmission spectrum, propagation length, decay length, and plasmonic Purcell factor. We simulated the transmission spectrum to find the appropriate wavelength for various width of the diel…
