In recent years, the field of quantum nanophotonics has been thriving with an intense interest in the development of new theories, devices, and applications for specific uses.This special issue on "Quantum nanophotonics" highlights some recent developments in this topic through reviews, perspectives, and research papers.This issue contains review and perspective articles that provide a comprehensive overview of cutting-edge topics.Chang and Zwiller [1] review the recent progresses in integrated quantum photonics using nanowires, focusing on integrated emitters, detectors, and fabrication methods.This review also presents the applications for quantum information processing and sensing based on nanowires.Gali [2] summarizes the ab initio theory to fully understand solid-state qubits, which are an essential component in the quantum photonic device.This computational method has been applied to the calculation of excited states, photo-ionization threshold, optical excitation spectra, effective mass states, and spin dynamics.This approach could give insights beyond conventional density functional theory that cannot fully capture the characteristics of excited states.Biotechnologies are being used in a variety of quantum optics and photonics or vice versa.DNA nanotechnology, using the information of DNA to design and manufacture artificial nucleic acid structures for technological uses, has been utilized in the field of quantum emitters.Exotic traits of DNA enable the grabbing of quantum emitters and steering of their directors at the molecular level of resolution.The relevant studies were extensively reviewed by Cho et al. [3].Reversely, the understanding of light-matter interaction in quantum optics provides a hint to investigate chemical and biological processes.Kim et al. [4] present a review of plexcitonic and vibro-polaritonic strong coupling based on light-matter interaction with optical resonators.The authors introduce from fundamentals of strong coupling, configuration and characteristics of plexcitons, and applications for chemistry and biological detection.Kim et al. [5] discuss that nanophotonic resonance engineering can make the near-unity readout fidelity necessary for improving the sensitivity of NV quantum sensing.The perspective gives insight into the background of NV quantum sensing, applications of resonant structures, and the remaining challenges for practical sensing.Zheng and Kim [6] address the degradation mechanisms of perovskite-based light-emitting diodes.The degradation can potentially occur in external and internal processes, leading to distinct effects on performance and stability.Various research articles on quantum nanophotonics are included.There is growing interest in optimizing the single photon emitter (SPE) that can be integrated into the photonic circuit and enable practical application.Azzam et al. [7] demonstrate the Purcell enhancement of WSe 2 SPE using a dielectric cavity.The dielectric cavity imposes an oriented strain profile on the WSe 2 , which can make the polarization state of the SPE selectively controlled.Xu et al. [8] report a high-purity SPE based on nanodiamonds (NDs) with negatively charged silicon vacancy (SiV -) centers using an ion implantation method.They successfully prevent SiV -emitters from
In recent years, the field of quantum nanophotonics has been thriving with an intense interest in the development of new theories, devices, and applications for specific uses.This special issue on "Quantum nanophotonics" highlights some recent developments in this topic through reviews, perspectives, and research papers.This issue contains review and perspective articles that provide a comprehensive overview of cutting-edge topics.Chang and Zwiller [1] review the recent progresses in integrated quantum photonics using nanowires, focusing on integrated emitters, detectors, and fabrication methods.This review also presents the applications for quantum information processing and sensing based on nanowires.Gali [2] summarizes the ab initio theory to fully understand solid-state qubits, which are an essential component in the quantum photonic device.This computational method has been applied to the calculation of excited states, photo-ionization threshold, optical excitation spectra, effective mass states, and spin dynamics.This approach could give insights beyond conventional density functional theory that cannot fully capture the characteristics of excited states.Biotechnologies are being used in a variety of quantum optics and photonics or vice versa.DNA nanotechnology, using the information of DNA to design and manufacture artificial nucleic acid structures for technological uses, has been utilized in the field of quantum emitters.Exotic traits of DNA enable the grabbing of quantum emitters and steering of their directors at the molecular level of resolution.The relevant studies were extensively reviewed by Cho et al. [3].Reversely, the understanding of light-matter interaction in quantum optics provides a hint to investigate chemical and biological processes.Kim et al. [4] present a review of plexcitonic and vibro-polaritonic strong coupling based on light-matter interaction with optical resonators.The authors introduce from fundamentals of strong coupling, configuration and characteristics of plexcitons, and applications for chemistry and biological detection.Kim et al. [5] discuss that nanophotonic resonance engineering can make the near-unity readout fidelity necessary for improving the sensitivity of NV quantum sensing.The perspective gives insight into the background of NV quantum sensing, applications of resonant structures, and the remaining challenges for practical sensing.Zheng and Kim [6] address the degradation mechanisms of perovskite-based light-emitting diodes.The degradation can potentially occur in external and internal processes, leading to distinct effects on performance and stability.Various research articles on quantum nanophotonics are included.There is growing interest in optimizing the single photon emitter (SPE) that can be integrated into the photonic circuit and enable practical application.Azzam et al. [7] demonstrate the Purcell enhancement of WSe 2 SPE using a dielectric cavity.The dielectric cavity imposes an oriented strain profile on the WSe 2 , which can make the polarization state of the SPE selectively controlled.Xu et al. [8] report a high-purity SPE based on nanodiamonds (NDs) with negatively charged silicon vacancy (SiV -) centers using an ion implantation method.They successfully prevent SiV -emitters from
Photons are very promising resources for the whole field of quantum information processing. Bulk optics are currently not suitable for the realization of complex quantum optical schemes due to several drawbacks. The ongoing miniaturization of photonic structures due to the availability of sophisticated nanofabrication has provided huge opportunities for physical research of novel phenomena in nanophotonic systems and quantum technological applications. These include quantum information processing such as quantum computing, quantum communication, quantum metrology, and quantum sensing. Quantum communication is already quite advanced with several quantum key distribution (QKD) systems commercially available offering absolute security. Photonic quantum technologies are enabling breakthroughs in experimental tests of quantum physics and are close to practical applications of quantum technologies in imaging, secure communications, ultrasensitive metrology and quantum computing. There are several advantages to encoding a quantum bit onto a photon: the preparation and manipulation of single photons is easy, and the photonic qubit is a natural candidate for quantum imaging and communications. Furthermore, the qubit can be encoded in various degrees of freedom such as on the position, phase, time-bin, energy, angular momentum, polarization of the photon—or a combination of these. This flexibility leads to enormous opportunities for scientific exploration and in practical applications. This special issue on “Photonic Quantum Technologies” presents selected papers on photonic quantum systems from leading groups in the world. The articles represent a flavor of the cutting-edge research that is going on in this area. The studied material systems range from molecules to semiconductor quantum emitters. A major challenge is the design of telecom photon emitters with high efficiency, good yield, spectral purity, stability and the possibility of mass manufacture. We believe that this Special Issue will provide an overview of recent exciting developments in the field of photonic quantum technologies, serving to keep researchers up-to-date with the latest progress and spurring on new concepts in this field.
Abstract Quantum sensing (QS) is a rapidly developing field at the intersection of physics, biology, and nanotechnology. It holds great promise for improving how we detect biomolecules in health, diagnostics, and environmental monitoring, and this potential is reflected in the rapid development and growing interest in advanced biosensing technologies. Traditional sensing methods, while useful, often face limits in sensitivity, speed, and the ability to analyze tiny amounts or subtle changes in biomolecules. QS uses coherence, entanglement, and superposition to achieve much higher sensitivity and precision than classical techniques. These technologies rely on advanced platforms like nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamonds, quantum dots. They can measure tiny changes in magnetic fields, electric charges, or fluorescence signals caused by biomolecules like proteins, DNA, lipids, carbohydrates and metabolites. This review explains the fundamental principles behind QS and explores how various physical platforms are used to detect and study biomolecules. It highlights recent breakthroughs in detecting single molecules, monitoring enzymatic reactions in real time, and imaging biological structures with quantum-level detail. We also discuss how nanotechnology is powering the field, improving integration through nanoparticle coupling, microfluidics, and specialized bio interfaces to target and amplify signals in practical settings. This review discusses current efforts to overcome existing challenges and highlights future directions, including the development of quantum-enhanced clinical sensors, integration with artificial intelligence for data analysis, and hybrid quantum–classical sensing strategies. These advances are expected to accelerate the translation of quantum biosensing technologies from laboratory demonstrations to practical clinical and environmental applications in the coming decade.
The past decade has seen great advances in developing color centers in diamond for sensing, quantum information processing, and tests of quantum foundations. Increasingly, the success of these applications as well as fundamental investigations of light-matter interaction depend on improved control of optical interactions with color centers -- from better fluorescence collection to efficient and precise coupling with confined single optical modes. Wide ranging research efforts have been undertaken to address these demands through advanced nanofabrication of diamond. This review will cover recent advances in diamond nano- and microphotonic structures for efficient light collection, color center to nanocavity coupling, hybrid integration of diamond devices with other material systems, and the wide range of fabrication methods that have enabled these complex photonic diamond systems.
At the core of quantum photonic information processing and sensing, two major building pillars are single-photon emitters and single-photon detectors. In this review, we systematically summarize the working theory, material platform, fabrication process, and game-changing applications enabled by state-of-the-art quantum dots in nanowire emitters and superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors. Such nanowire-based quantum hardware offers promising properties for modern quantum optics experiments. We highlight several burgeoning quantum photonics applications using nanowires and discuss development trends of integrated quantum photonics. Also, we propose quantum information processing and sensing experiments for the quantum optics community, and future interdisciplinary applications.
Single-photon emitters (SPEs) based on nitrogen-vacancy centers in nanodiamonds (neutral NV0 (wavelength 575 nm) and negative NV- (wavelength 637 nm)) represent promising platforms for quantum nanophotonics applications, yet their emission efficiencies remain constrained by weak light-matter interactions. Multi-layer metasurfaces (MLM) offer unprecedented degrees of freedom for efficient light manipulation beyond conventional single-material metasurfaces, enabling dual-resonance cavities that can simultaneously enhance pump excitation and SPE collection. However, traditional trial-and-error and forward optimization methods face significant challenges in designing these complex structures due to the vast parameter space and computational demands. Here, we present NanoPhotoNet-Inverse, an artificial intelligence-driven inverse design framework based on a hybrid deep neural network architecture. This model efficiently performs inverse design of two dual-resonance MLM cavities to amplify pump and SPE emissions of different vacancies in nanodiamond and improve SPE collection. Our approach achieves inverse design prediction efficiency exceeding 98.7%, demonstrating three orders of magnitude amplification in SPE count rate and 50 picosecond lifetime, significantly surpassing conventional cavity designs. These remarkable enhancements in emission rates and collection efficiency position our platform as a transformative technology for advancing quantum communication networks, quantum computing architectures, quantum sensing applications, and quantum cryptography systems. Therefore, it opens new pathways for intelligent photonic device engineering in quantum technologies.
In recent years, research on integrated quantum circuits has developed rapidly and exciting results have been achieved. The overarching goal of this emerging research direction in the field of modern quantum technology is the scalable integration of quantum functionality on robust chips. Such chips can work independently of one another, but it is even more interesting to develop them modularly for integration into larger quantum networks, thereby linking quantum computation and quantum communication in the same framework. In this context, the ongoing development and further optimization of integrated quantum circuits aim, inter alia, to achieve a quantum advantage in the area of quantum computing and to pave the way for multipartite quantum networks. The functionality of such chips is essentially based on single-photon operations, such as interference at beam splitters in combination with phase shifters in the field of linear optical quantum computing and Bell-state measurements for entanglement swapping in long-distance quantum networks. While individual functionalities such as CNOT gates and more complex quantum computing operations such as boson sampling in a combination of waveguide chips and external photon sources and detectors were successfully demonstrated, the field is currently facing the major challenge of integrating all necessary components monolithically on chip in order to exploit the full potential of integrated quantum nanophotonics. The present Perspective discusses the status and the present challenges of integrated quantum nanophotonics based on on-demand single-photon emitters and gives an outlook on required developments to enter the next level of fully functional quantum circuits for photonic quantum technology.