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Physics and High Technology

Developing a New Quantum Light Source: Single Photons from Single Molecules

Kwang-Geol Lee

Published Nov 30, 2013• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In this article, a new kind quantum light source, a single photon source, is introduced.In contrast to other pre-existing light sources, the single photon source enables us to 'get' single photons on demand.This is a truly remarkable
DOI
10.3938/phit.22.048

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It is safe to say that, when the concept of the photon was first introduced, the generation of single photons was not being considered. Until the emergence of the ideas and methods of quantum optics, the `single-photon regime' was attained by strongly attenuating a laser beam to ensure that the probability of having more than one photon became negligible. However, such attenuated beams differ from `true' single photons in at least two respects: first, the vacuum probability is much higher than the probability of detecting a photon, so one gets predominantly a `no-photon' regime with occasional detection of a photon; second, the probability of getting two photons is never zero, but essentially follows a Poisson law. Although the weak beam has been useful in quantum optics, the advent of quantum information science has placed stringent demands on optical sources, namely that sources produce single photons either on demand or heralded. 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Focus on Single Photons on Demand Contents Photon statistics characterization of a single-photon source R Alleaume, F Treussart, J-M Courty and J-F Roch Photon statistics of a non-stationary periodically driven single-photon source M Hennrich, T Legero, A Kuhn and G Rempe On the measurement of two-photon single-mode coupling efficiency in parametric down-conversion photon sources S Castelletto, I P Degiovanni, A Migdall and M Ware Single-photon sources based on single molecules in solids W E Moerner Single-photon generation with InAs quantum dots Charles Santori, David Fattal, Jelena Vuckovic, Glenn S Solomon and Yoshihisa Yamamoto Visible single-photon generation from semiconductor quantum dots Thomas Aichele, Valery Zwiller and Oliver Benson Enhanced correlated photon pair emission from a pillar microcavity M Benyoucef, S M Ulrich, P Michler, J Wiersig, F Jahnke and A Forchel Experimental open-air quantum key distribution with a single-photon source R Alleaume, F Treussart, G Messin, Y Dumeige, J-F Roch, A Beveratos, R Brouri-Tualle, J-P Poizat and P Grangier Post-processing with linear optics for improving the quality of single-photon sources Dominic W Berry, Stefan Scheel, Casey R Myers, Barry C Sanders, Peter L Knight and Raymond Laflamme A single-photon source based on a single Ca+ ion Christian Maurer, Christoph Becher, Carlos Russo, Jurgen Eschner and Rainer Blatt A calcium ion in a cavity as a controlled single-photon source M Keller, B Lange, K Hayasaka, W Lange and H Walther Quantum optics with single quantum dot devices Valery Zwiller, Thomas Aichele and Oliver Benson The creation and detection of arbitrary photon number states using cavity QED Benjamin T H Varcoe, Simon Brattke and Herbert Walther Stable single-photon source in the near infrared T Gaebel, I Popa, A Gruber, M Domhan, F Jelezko and J Wrachtrup Colloidal CdSe/ZnS quantum dots as single-photon sources X Brokmann, G Messin, P Desbiolles, E Giacobino, M Dahan and J P Hermier Towards a periodic deterministic source of arbitrary single-photon states Evan Jeffrey, Nicholas A Peters and Paul G Kwiat Fabrication of a superconducting niobium nitride hot electron bolometer for single-photon counting R Romestain, B Delaet, P Renaud-Goud, I Wang, C Jorel, J-C Villegier and J-Ph Poizat High-quality asynchronous heralded single-photon source at telecom wavelength Sylvain Fasel, Olivier Alibart, Sebastien Tanzilli, Pascal Baldi, Alexios Beveratos, Nicolas Gisin and Hugo Zbinden Philippe Grangier, Institut d'Optique Theorique et Appliquee, Orsay, France Barry Sanders, University of Calgary, Canada Jelena Vuckovic, Stanford University, CA, USA
The article surveys the state of the art in the design, development and application of devices for deterministically generating single photons on demand. Both the defined function and requisite form of such ‘single-photon’ sources are explained in detail. Their attributes and characteristics, in particular the photon-counting statistics of the light that they generate, are presented in conjunction with the experimental apparatus (most notably the Hanbury-Brown and Twiss interferometer) for measuring them. Promising applications of single-photon sources within quantum key distribution, quantum information processing, as well as metrology and fundamental tests of quantum mechanics, are described. The utility and relative advantages of single-photon sources vis-á-vis more conventional sources of light are explained in terms of application-specific requirements and the respective abilities of different sources to fulfil them. The article collects, classifies and sorts the most significant work towards realizing practical single-photon sources to date. Though emanating from a diverse set of technological disciplines, with different research and application objectives in mind, the relative advantages and drawbacks of each approach are assessed, to give the reader a broad yet coherent and critical review of a rapidly developing research front.
The development of single-photon sources has been nothing but rapid in recent years, with quantum emitter-based systems showing especially impressive progress. In this article, we give an overview of the developments in single-photon sources based on single molecules. We will introduce polycyclic hydrocarbons as the most commonly used emitter systems for the realization of an organic solid-state single-photon source. At cryogenic temperatures this special class of fluorescent molecules demonstrates remarkable optical properties such as negligible dephasing, indefinite photostability, and high photon rates, which make them attractive as fundamental building blocks in emerging quantum technologies. To better understand the general properties and limitations of these molecules, we discuss sample preparation and relevant emitter parameters such as absorption and emission spectra, lifetime, and dephasing. We will also give an overview of light extraction strategies as a crucial part of a single-photon source. Finally, we conclude with a look into the future, displaying current challenges and possible solutions.