Thomas Babinec, Stanford University
Tremendous progress has been made in the development of high-purity semiconductor materials so that their optoelectronic properties can now be controlled at the level of a single active dopant1. These individual impurities, which are quantum systems embedded in a solid-state host, possess diverse applications in quantum information science and technology2. As a simple and noteworthy example, single photons emitted from an optically active dopant may be used to share secure bits via quantum cryptographic key distribution3.
In this talk, I highlight several approaches towards realizing quantum photonic devices based on single dopants in solids. I describe several photonic device architectures for improving the performance of these systems, including nanowire waveguides offering high single photon collection efficiency4, ultrasmall mode volume nanometallic resonators5 and high quality factor photonic crystals cavities6 offering spontaneous emission rate enhancement. Coupling these nanophotonic devices to quantum systems such as single color centers and epitaxial quantum dots may be achieved via classical materials science techniques such as ion implantation and molecular beam epitaxy. Finally, these ingredients may be mixed in diverse and technologically relevant materials such as diamond, gallium arsenide and silicon carbide. All together, these are proof-of-concept demonstrations that tools of photonic engineering, materials science and nanoscience may be applied to emerging problems in quantum information science and technology.
References:
1. P. M. Koenraad and M. E. Flatte, “Single Dopants in Semiconductors”, Nature Materials 10, 91-100 (2011).
2. H. J. Kimble, “The Quantum Internet”, Nature 453, 1023-1030 (2008).
3. E. Waks et al., “Quantum Cryptography with a Photon Turnstile”, Nature 420, 762 (2002).
4. T. M. Babinec et al., “A Diamond Nanowire Single Photon Source”, Nature Nanotechnology 5, 195-199 (2010).
5. J. T. Choy*, B. J. M. Hausmann*, T. M. Babinec* and I. Bulu* et al., “Enhanced Single-Photon Emission from a Diamond-Silver Aperture”, Nature Photonics 5, 738-743 (2011).
6. M. Radulaski and T. M. Babinec et al., “Photonic Crystal Cavities in Cubic Polytype Silicon Carbide Films” Optics Express 21, 32623-32629 (2013).