Andrei Faraon

Dielectric metasurfaces for complete control of phase and polarization with subwavelength spatial resolution and high transmission

Metasurfaces are planar structures that locally modify the polarization, phase and amplitude of light in reflection or transmission, thus enabling lithographically patterned flat optical components with functionalities controlled by design. Transmissive metasurfaces are especially important, as most optical systems used in practice operate in transmission. Several types of transmissive metasurface have been realized, but with either low transmission efficiencies or limited control over polarization and phase. Here, we show a metasurface platform based on high-contrast dielectric elliptical nanoposts that provides complete control of polarization and phase with subwavelength spatial resolution and an experimentally measured efficiency ranging from 72% to 97%, depending on the exact design. Such complete control enables the realization of most free-space transmissive optical elements such as lenses, phase plates, wave plates, polarizers, beamsplitters, as well as polarization-switchable phase holograms and arbitrary vector beam generators using the same metamaterial platform.

Controlling cavity reflectivity with a single quantum dot

Solid-state cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) systems offer a robust and scalable platform for quantum optics experiments and the development of quantum information processing devices. In particular, systems based on photonic crystal nanocavities and semiconductor quantum dots have seen rapid progress. Recent experiments have allowed the observation of weak and strong coupling regimes of interaction between the photonic crystal cavity and a single quantum dot in photoluminescence. In the weak coupling regime, the quantum dot radiative lifetime is modified; in the strong coupling regime, the coupled quantum dot also modifies the cavity spectrum. Several proposals for scalable quantum information networks and quantum computation rely on direct probing of the cavity–quantum dot coupling, by means of resonant light scattering from strongly or weakly coupled quantum dots. Such experiments have recently been performed in atomic systems and superconducting circuit QED systems, but not in solid-state quantum dot–cavity QED systems. Here we present experimental evidence that this interaction can be probed in solid-state systems, and show that, as expected from theory, the quantum dot strongly modifies the cavity transmission and reflection spectra. We show that when the quantum dot is coupled to the cavity, photons that are resonant with its transition are prohibited from entering the cavity. We observe this effect as the quantum dot is tuned through the cavity and the coupling strength between them changes. At high intensity of the probe beam, we observe rapid saturation of the transmission dip. These measurements provide both a method for probing the cavity–quantum dot system and a step towards the realization of quantum devices based on coherent light scattering and large optical nonlinearities from quantum dots in photonic crystal cavities.

Controlled phase shifts with a single quantum dot.

Optical nonlinearities enable photon-photon interaction and lie at the heart of several proposals for quantum information processing, quantum nondemolition measurements of photons, and optical signal processing. To date, the largest nonlinearities have been realized with single atoms and atomic ensembles. We show that a single quantum dot coupled to a photonic crystal nanocavity can facilitate controlled phase and amplitude modulation between two modes of light at the single-photon level. At larger control powers, we observed phase shifts up to π/4 and amplitude modulation up to 50%. This was accomplished by varying the photon number in the control beam at a wavelength that was the same as that of the signal, or at a wavelength that was detuned by several quantum dot linewidths from the signal. Our results present a step toward quantum logic devices and quantum nondemolition measurements on a chip.

Coherent generation of non-classical light on a chip via photon-induced tunnelling and blockade

Quantum dots in photonic crystals are interesting because of their potential in quantum information processing and as a testbed for cavity quantum electrodynamics. Recent advances in controlling and coherent probing of such systems open the possibility of realizing quantum networks originally proposed for atomic systems. Here, we demonstrate that non-classical states of light can be coherently generated using a quantum dot strongly coupled to a photonic crystal resonator. We show that the capture of a single photon into the cavity affects the probability that a second photon is admitted. This probability drops when the probe is positioned at one of the two energy eigenstates corresponding to the vacuum Rabi splitting, a phenomenon known as photon blockade, the signature of which is photon antibunching. In addition, we show that when the probe is positioned between the two eigenstates, the probability of admitting subsequent photons increases, resulting in photon bunching. We call this process photon-induced tunnelling. This system represents an ultimate limit for solid-state nonlinear optics at the single-photon level. Along with demonstrating the generation of non-classical photon states, we propose an implementation of a single-photon transistor in this system.

Resonant enhancement of the zero-phonon emission from a colour centre in a diamond cavity

Integrated quantum photonic technologies are key for future applications in quantum information, ultralow-power opto-electronics and sensing. As individual quantum bits, nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond are among the most promising solid-state systems identified to date, because of their long-lived electron and nuclear spin coherence, and capability for individual optical initialization, readout and information storage. The major outstanding hurdle lies in interconnecting many nitrogen vacancies for large-scale computation. One of the most promising approaches in this regard is to couple them to optical resonators, which can be further interconnected in a photonic network. Here, we demonstrate coupling of the zero-phonon line of individual nitrogen vacancies to the modes of microring resonators fabricated in single-crystal diamond. Zero-phonon line enhancement by more than a factor of 10 is estimated from lifetime measurements. The devices are fabricated using standard semiconductor techniques and off-the-shelf materials, thus enabling integrated diamond photonics.

Subwavelength-thick lenses with high numerical apertures and large efficiency based on high-contrast transmitarrays

Flat optical devices thinner than a wavelength promise to replace conventional free-space components for wavefront and polarization control. Transmissive flat lenses are particularly interesting for applications in imaging and on-chip optoelectronic integration. Several designs based on plasmonic metasurfaces, high-contrast transmitarrays and gratings have been recently implemented but have not provided a performance comparable to conventional curved lenses. Here we report polarization-insensitive, micron-thick, high-contrast transmitarray micro-lenses with focal spots as small as 0.57 λ. The measured focusing efficiency is up to 82%. A rigorous method for ultrathin lens design, and the trade-off between high efficiency and small spot size (or large numerical aperture) are discussed. The micro-lenses, composed of silicon nano-posts on glass, are fabricated in one lithographic step that could be performed with high-throughput photo or nanoimprint lithography, thus enabling widespread adoption.

Generation and transfer of single photons on a photonic crystal chip

We present a basic building block of a quantum network consisting of a quantum dot coupled to a source cavity, which in turn is coupled to a target cavity via a waveguide. The single photon emission from the high-Q/V source cavity is characterized by twelve-fold spontaneous emission (SE) rate enhancement, SE coupling efficiency beta ~ 0.98 into the source cavity mode, and mean wavepacket indistinguishability of ~67%. Single photons are efficiently transferred into the target cavity via the waveguide, with a target/source field intensity ratio of 0.12 +/- 0.01. This system shows great promise as a building block of future on-chip quantum information processing systems.

Efficient Photonic Crystal Cavity-Waveguide Couplers

Coupling of photonic crystal (PC) linear three-hole defect cavities to PC waveguides is theoretically and experimentally investigated. The systems are designed to increase the overlap between the evanescent cavity field and the waveguide mode and to operate in the linear dispersion region of the waveguide. The simulations indicate increased coupling when the cavity is tilted by 60° with respect to the waveguide axis, which was also confirmed by experiments. Up to 90% coupling efficiency into the waveguide was obtained.

Coupling of nitrogen-vacancy centers to photonic crystal resonators in monocrystalline diamond

The zero-phonon transition rate for nitrogen-vacancy centers is enhanced by coupling to photonic crystal resonators fabricated in monocrystalline diamond. Autocorrelation measurements on the spectrally filtered zero-phonon line demonstrate coupling of a single emitter.

Local quantum dot tuning on photonic crystal chips

Quantum networks based on InAs quantum dots embedded in photonic crystal devices rely on quantum dots being in resonance with each other and with the cavities they are embedded in. The authors developed a technique based on temperature tuning to spectrally align different quantum dots located on the same chip. The technique allows for up to 1.8 nm reversible on-chip quantum dot tuning.