Single photons on demand from a single molecule at room temperature

L. Fleury, Jean‐Manuel Segura, G. Zumofen +2 more

Ch. Brunel, Philippe Tamarat, Brahim Lounis +1 more

Raul Lahoz Sanz, Lidia Lozano‐Martín, A. B. CORTES +4 more

High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide Single photon sources are fundamental for applications in quantum computing, secure communication, and sensing, as they enable the generation of individual photons and ensure strict control over photon number statistics. However, current single photon sources can be limited by a lack of robustness, difficulty of integration into existing optical or electronic devices, and high cost. In this study, we present the use of off-the-shelf C 60 fullerene molecules embedded in polystyrene as room-temperature reliable single-photon emitters. As our results demonstrate, these molecules exhibit on-demand single-photon emission, with short fluorescence lifetimes and, consequently, high emission rates. The wide availability and ease of preparation and manipulation of fullerenes as single photon sources can pave the way for the development of practical, economic and scalable quantum photonic technologies.

Ze-Yu Luo, Tong Zhang, Y. Ye +9 more

Deterministically achieving on-chip photon storage and retrieval is a fundamental challenge for integrated photonics. Moreover, this requirement is increasingly urgent as photon storage and retrieval is crucial to realize truly scalable room-temperature quantum computing. However, most of existing quantum memories integrated on chips must either work at cryogenic temperature or else are strongly coupled with the environment, which hugely reduces the efficiency. Here, we propose an on-chip room-temperature quantum memory comprising three coupled microcavities, which presents an ideal dark state decoupled by a waveguide, thereby allowing on-demand photon storage and retrieval with high efficiency and high fidelity simultaneously. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the single-photon temporal duration can be increased or decreased by a factor of 103, thereby enabling many crucial quantum applications. Our error-robust approach highlights the potential for a solid-state photonic molecule for use as on-chip quantum memory and for optical quantum computing.

Robert M. Dickson, José Ignacio Rodríguez González, Tae-Hee Lee +3 more

Tae-Hee Lee, Pradeep Kumar, Adosh Mehta +3 more

We show that oriented nanostructures from single molecules of a conducting polymer act as highly robust room-temperature single-photon sources. Individual z-oriented polymer nanostructures show high-contrast photon antibunching with a modulation depth exceeding 90%. These results suggest the feasibility of a “push-button” technology for polymer-based single-photon sources in photonic-based quantum information processing applications.