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Electromagnetic Coherence of Optical Surface and Quantum Light Fields

Andreas Norrman

Published Dec 16, 2016• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

This thesis encompasses fundamental theoretical research on plasmonics, electromagnetic coherence, and quantum complementarity.Three main topics are covered: surface-plasmon polaritons (SPPs), partial coherence of optical surface fields, and complementarity in vectorial photon interference.Existence of new SPP modes at planar single-interface and thinfilm geometries are predicted.It is further shown, for the first time, how a higher-order metal-slab mode, commonly not regarded useful, may turn into a strongly confined long-range surface mode in many situations where the fundamental long-range SPP does not exist and the single-interface SPP propagation is negligible.Partially coherent SPP fields are studied and a scheme to tailor the vectorial coherence of polychromatic SPPs in the Kretschmann setup by controlling the correlations of the source light is advanced.Generation and coherence of purely evanescent light fields are also examined.It is demonstrated that, for such fields, the coherence length in air can be notably shorter than the free-space wavelength.The analysis also reveals the possibility to excite an evanescent field that shares the polarization properties of blackbody radiation, yet with tunable coherence qualities.Polarization modulation in double-pinhole photon interference is explored to derive two general complementarity relations among distinguishability and visibility associated with genuine vector-light quantum fields of arbitrary state.The established framework uncovers a new intrinsic aspect of wave-particle duality of the photon, having no correspondence within the scalar quantum treatment.

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Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) result from collective oscillations of free electrons coupled to an electromagnetic field at a plane interface between a metal and a dielectric medium. As photons, SPPs can be considered either as waves or as bosonic particles [1] and they can experience striking quantum interferences such as Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) effect [2]. We use in this paper a plasmonic platform (Fig.1) that can convert photons into plasmons, and separate or recombine them on a plasmonic beamsplitter [3]. Single SPPs are excited using single photons created by parametric down conversion into a periodically-poled KTP crystal. The platform is placed in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer in order to vary the path difference between SPPs before impinging on the beamsplitter. The setup allows us to revisit quantum optics experiments using SPP as carriers of the quantum of energy. Using the same device, we can test the wave-particle duality, two-particle (HOM) interference and non-local control of single plasmon interference using the entanglement between a photon and a SPP [4]. In the case of the HOM experiment, we demonstrate that the losses can be used as a new degree of freedom [5]. Playing with the dephasing between transmission and reflection coefficient of the beamsplitter, we can observe a peak instead of the usually expected dip in the HOM interference (Fig.2), i.e. an anti-coalescence effect of SPP. In this talk, we will introduce the plasmonic device main features as well as the different quantum plasmonics experiments that have been performed thanks to the SPP beamsplitter. These results are essential to understand the SPP quantum behavior or to develop hybrid plasmon-photon systems for potential future applications in quantum communication mediated by SPP. [1] JM Elson and R.H. Ritchie, Phys. Rev. B 4, 4129 (1971) [2] J.S. Fakonas et al., Nat. Phot. 8, 317 (2014) [3] M.C. Dheur et al. , Sc. Advances 2, e151574 (2016) [4] M.C. Dheur et al. ArXiv 1610.07493, B. Vest et al. ArXiv 1610.07479 [5] S. Barnett et al., Phys. Rev. A 57, 2134 (1998) Fig.1: Plasmonic platform used for the quantum optics experiment (B). It consists in two SPP launchers (A), a plasmonic beamsplitter, and two slits to convert SPP to photons in the glass substrate. The plasmonic interference can thus be probed using single photon counting modules. Fig2: HOM experiment on a lossy plasmonic beamsplitter, whose complex amplitude reflection and transmission factors are denoted r and t respectively. The usual HOM dip is observed when r = it (left), a peak in the coincidence rate is shown when r = t.

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Physical Review Letters•Jul 25, 2017•31 citations
This thesis encompasses fundamental theoretical research on plasmonics, electromagnetic coherence, and quantum complementarity.Three main topics are covered: surface-plasmon polaritons (SPPs), partial coherence of optical surface fields, and complementarity in vectorial photon interference.Existence of new SPP modes at planar single-interface and thinfilm geometries are predicted.It is further shown, for the first time, how a higher-order metal-slab mode, commonly not regarded useful, may turn into a strongly confined long-range surface mode in many situations where the fundamental long-range SPP does not exist and the single-interface SPP propagation is negligible.Partially coherent SPP fields are studied and a scheme to tailor the vectorial coherence of polychromatic SPPs in the Kretschmann setup by controlling the correlations of the source light is advanced.Generation and coherence of purely evanescent light fields are also examined.It is demonstrated that, for such fields, the coherence length in air can be notably shorter than the free-space wavelength.The analysis also reveals the possibility to excite an evanescent field that shares the polarization properties of blackbody radiation, yet with tunable coherence qualities.Polarization modulation in double-pinhole photon interference is explored to derive two general complementarity relations among distinguishability and visibility associated with genuine vector-light quantum fields of arbitrary state.The established framework uncovers a new intrinsic aspect of wave-particle duality of the photon, having no correspondence within the scalar quantum treatment.
We develop a microscopic quantum theory of surface plasmon polaritons valid for arbitrary metal-dielectric geometries. Our framework is based on the Power-Zienau-Woolley representation of quantum electrodynamics, which provides an optimal separation between electronic and photonic degrees of freedom and is therefore particularly well suited for constructing quantum descriptions of polaritonic excitations in strongly dispersive media. Within this formulation, the fundamental electronic oscillator is identified as the bulk plasmon mode, which is nonperturbatively coupled to the radiative continuum of free photon modes. This coupling induces a geometry-dependent renormalization of the bulk plasma frequency, giving rise to confined plasmonic resonances. As specific applications, we recover the localized surface plasmon modes of metallic nanoparticles, including radiative frequency shifts and decay, as well as the exact dispersion relation of propagating surface plasmon polaritons at planar interfaces. Our quantum treatment further reveals that light-matter interactions at metal-dielectric interfaces are inherently in the ultrastrong coupling regime. As a result, in the quasistatic limit, the system exhibits unconventional ground-state quantum fluctuations that can be controlled through the refractive index. These results open new intriguing perspectives in the field of quantum plasmonics.
This thesis investigates properties of quantum states of light while travelling as surface plasmon polaritons in plasmonic waveguides and structures. The bosonic nature of SPPs has been shown in previous work by performing a Hong-Ou-Mandel interference experiment with a plasmonic scattering-based beam splitter. Here, we show the same interference with a higher statistical power thanks to an improved set-up. A visibility of 59 ± 1 % is obtained in the two-photon interference, clearly breaking the classical limit of 50 %. The importance of the phase-relations between the different modes in the beam splitter is experimentally probed. The output state of the interference is then further analyzed by a quantum state tomography set-up. This makes it possible to quantify the entanglement generated in the interference. As the interference happens in the plasmonic beam splitter, this shows, to our knowledge for the first time, entanglement generated in a plasmonic structure. Together with the recent results in terms of entanglement and coherence preservation of SPPs, this clearly shows the potential of quantum plasmonic devices. To move into the realm of applications, we also investigate theoretically the enhancements in sensitivity quantum states of light can deliver for plasmonic sensing. It is shown that despite the losses, quantum metrology techniques can be useful in an interferometer with plasmonic waveguides. Considering the strengths and successes of plasmonic sensing techniques in a wide range of fields, we envision that entangled and squeezed states of light will become a new route to push the limits in sensitivity.
Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) result from collective oscillations of free electrons coupled to an electromagnetic field at a plane interface between a metal and a dielectric medium. As photons, SPPs can be considered either as waves or as bosonic particles [1] and they can experience striking quantum interferences such as Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) effect [2]. We use in this paper a plasmonic platform (Fig.1) that can convert photons into plasmons, and separate or recombine them on a plasmonic beamsplitter [3]. Single SPPs are excited using single photons created by parametric down conversion into a periodically-poled KTP crystal. The platform is placed in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer in order to vary the path difference between SPPs before impinging on the beamsplitter. The setup allows us to revisit quantum optics experiments using SPP as carriers of the quantum of energy. Using the same device, we can test the wave-particle duality, two-particle (HOM) interference and non-local control of single plasmon interference using the entanglement between a photon and a SPP [4]. In the case of the HOM experiment, we demonstrate that the losses can be used as a new degree of freedom [5]. Playing with the dephasing between transmission and reflection coefficient of the beamsplitter, we can observe a peak instead of the usually expected dip in the HOM interference (Fig.2), i.e. an anti-coalescence effect of SPP. In this talk, we will introduce the plasmonic device main features as well as the different quantum plasmonics experiments that have been performed thanks to the SPP beamsplitter. These results are essential to understand the SPP quantum behavior or to develop hybrid plasmon-photon systems for potential future applications in quantum communication mediated by SPP. [1] JM Elson and R.H. Ritchie, Phys. Rev. B 4, 4129 (1971) [2] J.S. Fakonas et al., Nat. Phot. 8, 317 (2014) [3] M.C. Dheur et al. , Sc. Advances 2, e151574 (2016) [4] M.C. Dheur et al. ArXiv 1610.07493, B. Vest et al. ArXiv 1610.07479 [5] S. Barnett et al., Phys. Rev. A 57, 2134 (1998) Fig.1: Plasmonic platform used for the quantum optics experiment (B). It consists in two SPP launchers (A), a plasmonic beamsplitter, and two slits to convert SPP to photons in the glass substrate. The plasmonic interference can thus be probed using single photon counting modules. Fig2: HOM experiment on a lossy plasmonic beamsplitter, whose complex amplitude reflection and transmission factors are denoted r and t respectively. The usual HOM dip is observed when r = it (left), a peak in the coincidence rate is shown when r = t.
The principle of complementarity relationship introduced by Niels Bohr in 1927 states that particle and wave behavior are two mutually exclusive properties for a quantum system.This relationship has taken the attention of researchers for decades due to its conceptual importance.This thesis contains a theoretical research work conducted on quantum complementarity of vectorial light fields and in the doublepinhole interference.Here we have adopted the classical Stokes parameters within a quantum framework and calculated the Stokes parameters in the observation plane in double-pinhole interference.Based on these calculations, we further evaluated visibility and distinguishability parameters for an arbitrary pure single-photon state and for a specific single-photon pure state, where the photon is x polarized at the first pinhole and y polarized at the second pinhole.We have then examined and interpreted the wave-particle duality for the mentioned two states.Finally, we performed mixed state calculation where fully unpolarized photon is incident on the two pinholes, but with the photon at one pinhole rotated by an angle of π/2.From the obtained results we concluded that a priori which path information (WPI) regarding the complementarity relations for the single photon pure vectorial quantum state couples not to the intensity visibility but to the total visibility.We further found that the vectorial quantum state gives rise to polarization modulation.From the results obtained for the mixed state calculations, we discovered that the last Stokes parameter has a non-zero value and it contributes to the polarization modulation.Thereby we further recommended to repeat the calculation for different mixed states other than what we have considered here to extend the exploration about the nature of polarization modulation.