Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:1206.1036 · Physical Review A

Tailoring and enhancing spontaneous two-photon emission using resonant plasmonic nanostructures

Alexander N. Poddubny, Pavel Ginzburg, Pavel A. Belov, Anatoly V. Zayats, Yuri S. Kivshar

Published Sep 20, 2012• 45 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The rate of spontaneous emission is known to depend on the environment of a emitter, and the enhancement of one-photon emission in a resonant cavity is known as the Purcell effect. Here we develop a theory of spontaneous two-photon emission for a general electromagnetic environment including inhomogeneous dispersive and absorptive media. This theory is used to evaluate the two-photon Purcell enhancement in the vicinity of metallic nanoparticles and demonstrates that the surface-plasmon resonances supported by these particles can increase the emission rate by more than two orders of magnitude. The control over two-photon Purcell enhancement given by tailored nanostructured environments could provide an emitter with any desired spectral response and may serve as an ultimate route for designing light sources with novel properties.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.86.033826

Related papers

Purcell factor engineering in plasmonic nanostructures for the enhanced generation of energy-time entangled states

Pavel Ginzburg, Alexander N. Poddubny, Pavel A. Belov +2 more

We summarize our studies of the plasmonic enhancements of the spontaneous two-photon emission. In particular, we draw attention to the rigorous investigation of quantum framework for the multi-photon spontaneous decay rates in an environment with arbitrary structure of electromagnetic modes. We demonstrate that nanostructured environment can be used for tailoring the basic characteristics of the two-photon emission such as spectrum, lifetime, and entanglement. Moreover, careful engineering of the two-photon Purcell enhancement may provide any desired spectral response and may serve as an ultimate route for designing light sources with novel properties.

•Jan 1, 2012•0 citations

Purcell Enhancement of Parametric Luminescence: Bright and Broadband Nonlinear Light Emission in Metamaterials

Artur R. Davoyan, Harry A. Atwater

Single-photon and correlated two-photon sources are important elements for optical information systems. Nonlinear downconversion light sources are robust and stable emitters of single photons and entangled photon pairs. However, the rate of downconverted light emission, dictated by the properties of low-symmetry nonlinear crystals, is typically very small, leading to significant constrains in device design and integration. In this paper, we show that the principles for spontaneous emission control (i.e. Purcell effect) of isolated emitters in nanoscale structures, such as metamaterials, can be generalized to describe the enhancement of nonlinear light generation processes such as parametric down conversion. We develop a novel theoretical framework for quantum nonlinear emission in a general anisotropic, dispersive and lossy media. We further find that spontaneous parametric downconversion in media with hyperbolic dispersion is broadband and phase-mismatch-free. We predict a 1000-fold enhancement of the downconverted emission rate with up to 105 photon pairs per second in experimentally realistic nanostructures. Our theoretical formalism and approach to Purcell enhancement of nonlinear optical processes, provides a framework for description of quantum nonlinear optical phenomena in complex nanophotonic structures.

arXiv:1709.07028•Sep 20, 2017•0 citations

Photonic Modelling of Two-Photon Purcell Effect Near Plasmonic Nanostructures

S. Smeets, Björn Maes, Gilles Rosolen

We present a novel photonic model that enables an efficient computation of the two-photon Purcell effect of a quantum emitter in the vicinity of an arbitrary photonic structure. Our framework is relevant for the plasmonic nanocavities used to enhance higher-order light-matter interactions, as it goes beyond the dipolar approximation. The computation of Purcell factors through classical electromagnetic simulations determines the influence of the environment without tedious analytic calculations. We demonstrate that placing a hydrogen-like emitter close to a silver nanodisk enhances the transition rate by 5 and 11 orders of magnitude via electric dipole and quadrupole two-photon transitions, respectively. This process has exciting implications for future research, including the potential for efficient entangled two-photon sources.

International Congress on Artificial Materials for Novel Wave Phenomena (Metamaterials)•Sep 11, 2023•0 citations

Two-Photon Spontaneous Emission in Atomically Thin Plasmonic Nanostructures

Yunuhen Muñiz, Alejandro Manjavacas, Carlos Farina +2 more

The ability to harness light-matter interactions at the few-photon level plays a pivotal role in quantum technologies. Single photons-the most elementary states of light-can be generated on demand in atomic and solid state emitters. Two-photon states are also key quantum assets, but achieving them in individual emitters is challenging because their generation rate is much slower than competing one-photon processes. We demonstrate that atomically thin plasmonic nanostructures can harness two-photon spontaneous emission, resulting in giant far field two-photon production, a wealth of resonant modes enabling tailored photonic and plasmonic entangled states, and plasmon-assisted single-photon creation orders of magnitude more efficient than standard one-photon emission. We unravel the two-photon spontaneous emission channels and show that their spectral line shapes emerge from an intricate interplay between Fano and Lorentzian resonances. Enhanced two-photon spontaneous emission in two-dimensional nanostructures paves the way to an alternative efficient source of light-matter entanglement for on-chip quantum information processing and free-space quantum communications.

arXiv:2006.15219•Physical Review Letters•Jul 15, 2020•34 citations

Quantum nonlinear light emission in metamaterials: broadband Purcell enhancement of parametric downconversion

Artur R. Davoyan, Harry A. Atwater

Single-photon and correlated two-photon sources are important elements for optical information systems. Nonlinear downconversion light sources are robust and stable emitters of single photons and entangled photon pairs. However, the rate of downconverted light emission, dictated by the properties of low-symmetry nonlinear crystals, is typically very small, leading to significant constraints in device design and integration. In this Letter, we study principles of spontaneous emission control (i.e., the Purcell effect) generalized to describe the enhancement of nonlinear generation of quantum light through spontaneous parametric downconversion. We develop a theoretical framework based on eigenmode analysis to study quantum nonlinear emission in a general anisotropic, dispersive, and lossy media. Our theory provides an unprecedented insight into the emission process. We find that spontaneous parametric downconversion in a media with hyperbolic dispersion is broadband and phase-mismatch-free. We further predict a significant enhancement of the downconverted emission rate in experimentally realistic nanostructures. Our theoretical formalism and approach to Purcell enhancement of nonlinear optical processes provides a framework for description of quantum nonlinear optical phenomena in complex nanophotonic structures.

Optica•May 11, 2018•30 citations

Nanostructured Control of Interactions of Quantum Emitters Beyond Electric Dipole Approximation

Miriam Kosik, O. Burlayenko, Karolina Słowik

Summary form only given. In the pioneering work of Purcell, the possibility to control spontaneous emission lifetimes of quantum emitters by tailoring their electromagnetic surroundings was widely investigated and verified in various types of cavities or band-gap environments. This includes semiconductor microstructures, photonic crystals, and plasmonic nanoparticles. Due to the extraordinary ability of plasmonic nanostructures to confine light into subwavelength spatial domains, steps beyond the paradigmatic electric dipole approximation in the theoretical description of this process may be necessary. In this contribution, we focus on the case of multiple in general nonidentical two-level emitters, sharing the same electromagnetic surroundings, whose local density of states could be tailored by a neighbouring nanostructure. In this case, the surroundings may serve as a long-distance emitter-emitter interaction carrier, or it may trigger collective emission processes, in analogy to Dicke superradiance. We describe these phenomena taking into account the electric dipole, magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole components of light-matter interaction Hamiltonian.

Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC)•Jun 1, 2019•0 citations
The rate of spontaneous emission is known to depend on the environment of a emitter, and the enhancement of one-photon emission in a resonant cavity is known as the Purcell effect. Here we develop a theory of spontaneous two-photon emission for a general electromagnetic environment including inhomogeneous dispersive and absorptive media. This theory is used to evaluate the two-photon Purcell enhancement in the vicinity of metallic nanoparticles and demonstrates that the surface-plasmon resonances supported by these particles can increase the emission rate by more than two orders of magnitude. The control over two-photon Purcell enhancement given by tailored nanostructured environments could provide an emitter with any desired spectral response and may serve as an ultimate route for designing light sources with novel properties.
We summarize our studies of the plasmonic enhancements of the spontaneous two-photon emission. In particular, we draw attention to the rigorous investigation of quantum framework for the multi-photon spontaneous decay rates in an environment with arbitrary structure of electromagnetic modes. We demonstrate that nanostructured environment can be used for tailoring the basic characteristics of the two-photon emission such as spectrum, lifetime, and entanglement. Moreover, careful engineering of the two-photon Purcell enhancement may provide any desired spectral response and may serve as an ultimate route for designing light sources with novel properties.
Single-photon and correlated two-photon sources are important elements for optical information systems. Nonlinear downconversion light sources are robust and stable emitters of single photons and entangled photon pairs. However, the rate of downconverted light emission, dictated by the properties of low-symmetry nonlinear crystals, is typically very small, leading to significant constrains in device design and integration. In this paper, we show that the principles for spontaneous emission control (i.e. Purcell effect) of isolated emitters in nanoscale structures, such as metamaterials, can be generalized to describe the enhancement of nonlinear light generation processes such as parametric down conversion. We develop a novel theoretical framework for quantum nonlinear emission in a general anisotropic, dispersive and lossy media. We further find that spontaneous parametric downconversion in media with hyperbolic dispersion is broadband and phase-mismatch-free. We predict a 1000-fold enhancement of the downconverted emission rate with up to 105 photon pairs per second in experimentally realistic nanostructures. Our theoretical formalism and approach to Purcell enhancement of nonlinear optical processes, provides a framework for description of quantum nonlinear optical phenomena in complex nanophotonic structures.
We present a novel photonic model that enables an efficient computation of the two-photon Purcell effect of a quantum emitter in the vicinity of an arbitrary photonic structure. Our framework is relevant for the plasmonic nanocavities used to enhance higher-order light-matter interactions, as it goes beyond the dipolar approximation. The computation of Purcell factors through classical electromagnetic simulations determines the influence of the environment without tedious analytic calculations. We demonstrate that placing a hydrogen-like emitter close to a silver nanodisk enhances the transition rate by 5 and 11 orders of magnitude via electric dipole and quadrupole two-photon transitions, respectively. This process has exciting implications for future research, including the potential for efficient entangled two-photon sources.
The ability to harness light-matter interactions at the few-photon level plays a pivotal role in quantum technologies. Single photons-the most elementary states of light-can be generated on demand in atomic and solid state emitters. Two-photon states are also key quantum assets, but achieving them in individual emitters is challenging because their generation rate is much slower than competing one-photon processes. We demonstrate that atomically thin plasmonic nanostructures can harness two-photon spontaneous emission, resulting in giant far field two-photon production, a wealth of resonant modes enabling tailored photonic and plasmonic entangled states, and plasmon-assisted single-photon creation orders of magnitude more efficient than standard one-photon emission. We unravel the two-photon spontaneous emission channels and show that their spectral line shapes emerge from an intricate interplay between Fano and Lorentzian resonances. Enhanced two-photon spontaneous emission in two-dimensional nanostructures paves the way to an alternative efficient source of light-matter entanglement for on-chip quantum information processing and free-space quantum communications.
Single-photon and correlated two-photon sources are important elements for optical information systems. Nonlinear downconversion light sources are robust and stable emitters of single photons and entangled photon pairs. However, the rate of downconverted light emission, dictated by the properties of low-symmetry nonlinear crystals, is typically very small, leading to significant constraints in device design and integration. In this Letter, we study principles of spontaneous emission control (i.e., the Purcell effect) generalized to describe the enhancement of nonlinear generation of quantum light through spontaneous parametric downconversion. We develop a theoretical framework based on eigenmode analysis to study quantum nonlinear emission in a general anisotropic, dispersive, and lossy media. Our theory provides an unprecedented insight into the emission process. We find that spontaneous parametric downconversion in a media with hyperbolic dispersion is broadband and phase-mismatch-free. We further predict a significant enhancement of the downconverted emission rate in experimentally realistic nanostructures. Our theoretical formalism and approach to Purcell enhancement of nonlinear optical processes provides a framework for description of quantum nonlinear optical phenomena in complex nanophotonic structures.
Summary form only given. In the pioneering work of Purcell, the possibility to control spontaneous emission lifetimes of quantum emitters by tailoring their electromagnetic surroundings was widely investigated and verified in various types of cavities or band-gap environments. This includes semiconductor microstructures, photonic crystals, and plasmonic nanoparticles. Due to the extraordinary ability of plasmonic nanostructures to confine light into subwavelength spatial domains, steps beyond the paradigmatic electric dipole approximation in the theoretical description of this process may be necessary. In this contribution, we focus on the case of multiple in general nonidentical two-level emitters, sharing the same electromagnetic surroundings, whose local density of states could be tailored by a neighbouring nanostructure. In this case, the surroundings may serve as a long-distance emitter-emitter interaction carrier, or it may trigger collective emission processes, in analogy to Dicke superradiance. We describe these phenomena taking into account the electric dipole, magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole components of light-matter interaction Hamiltonian.