NRL Introduces a New Paradigm for Control of Quantum Emitters

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NRL research team develops a new method to control single photon emission using a hybrid ferroelectric heterostructure. The character of light emitted from an atomic scale emitter in a monolayer semiconductor, WS2, is controlled by the ferroelectric polarization in an adjacent film. Localized emitters in the monolayer WS2 over “up-domains” in the ferroelectric film emit high purity quantum light, while those over “down-domains” emit semi-classical light. This modulation offers an additional tool for secure communications and quantum encryption schemes based upon single photon sources.
NRL research team develops a new method to control single photon emission using a hybrid ferroelectric heterostructure. The character of light emitted from an atomic scale emitter in a monolayer semiconductor, WS2, is controlled by the ferroelectric polarization in an adjacent film. Localized emitters in the monolayer WS2 over “up-domains” in the ferroelectric film emit high purity quantum light, while those over “down-domains” emit semi-classical light. This modulation offers an additional tool for secure communications and quantum encryption schemes based upon single photon sources (image source: NRL).

November 19, 2024 | Originally published by U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) on October 31, 2024

WASHINGTON – A U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) multi-disciplinary team developed a new paradigm for the control of quantum emitters, providing a new method for modulating and encoding quantum photonic information on a single photon light stream.

Quantum photonics is expected to offer functionality not possible with classical light and promises significant advances in secure communications, metrology, sensing, and quantum information processing and computation.

These applications impose many requirements on quantum emitter (QE) candidates, including deterministic creation and placement of the emitter, a high degree of single photon purity ranging from 90-100%, and a mechanism to control or modulate such emission. The ability to modulate the character of the light emitted from these discrete emitters offers a mechanism for encoding information on a single photon stream, with applications in secure communications and quantum encryption schemes based upon single photon sources. This work was recently published in ACS Nano 18, 25349-25358 (2024).

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