Quantum and Nonlinear Photonics in Silicon Carbide

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The project is jointly funded by the Electronic and Photonic Materials (EPM) and the Condensed Matter Physics (CMP) Programs, both in the Division of Materials Research (DMR), and by the Electronics, Photonics, and Magnetic Devices (EPMD) Program in the Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS).Non-technical Description: This project develops a new platform for strong interaction between light and matter - using an optical cavity (resonator) nanofabricated in silicon carbide that simultaneously contains optical emitters (color centers) and localizes light in an overlapping, sub-wavelength volume. Such a platform enables switching one optical beam with another and changing its color - even with very weak beams, at the level of only a few photons. The potential applications of these effects include building blocks for secure quantum communication systems over long distances, optical equivalents of electronic switches operating at much lower powers and higher speeds, and magnetic field sensors. This work therefore combines photonic engineering, with materials/nanoscience, and fundamental physics. The project contains educational and outreach activities integrated with research, including active recruitment of minorities and women for science and engineering careers, development of new classes and textbooks, undergraduate research and advising, and participation in outreach programs for K-12 students and teachers.Technical Description: The focus of this research is the development of a quantum and nonlinear photonics platform based on silicon carbide nanophotonic cavities with embedded ensembles of optically-active crystalline impurities (color centers). Ensembles of suitable quantum emitters are generated (e.g., via electron beam irradiation) inside nanofabricated photonic crystal cavities with high quality factors and small mode volumes. Such a platform is probed in a variety of custom-built optical setups to study nonlinear and quantum optics, and multi-emitter cavity quantum electrodynamics effects at room temperature and at low optical power levels. The observed effects are employed to build optical switches at the level of a few photons (for optical communications and computing), to interface long-lived states of quantum emitters in silicon carbide to photons propagating in fiber optic networks (with applications to quantum networks), to build on-chip light sources for wavelengths from visible through mid-infrared, and to sense weak magnetic fields.