CAREER:An all-optical plasmonic device to control and couple quantum dots for optical and quantum information processing

摘要：非技术描述：现代计算设备，从智能手机到超级计算机，都依靠电子来携带和处理信息。随着微芯片上基本电路的尺寸缩小到纳米级，这些组件的紧密接近可能会由于电子之间的相互作用而导致信息“交通堵塞”。为了克服这一限制，目前的研究工作正在探索用光子取代电子作为信息的主要载体的想法，因为它们之间不直接相互作用。人们期望光子器件在速度、带宽和能源效率方面更具优势。然而，这种缺乏直接相互作用可能是一把双刃剑：在全光学设备中，一个光子如何能被另一个光子控制？为了回答这个难题，这个拟议中的项目将利用金属纳米结构的电磁约束和增强能力，不仅将光子引导到低于其衍射极限的纳米级足迹上，而且还将在万亿分之一秒的时间尺度上控制光子是如何从称为量子点的纳米级光源发射出来的，以及它们将去哪里。其关键思想不是依赖于直接的光子相互作用，而是利用光激发的金属纳米结构对量子点进行强烈的修饰，从而决定产生的光子的性质和方向。这些技术的成功实施为超高速光开关或晶体管铺平了道路，可以导致信息处理技术的范式转变。技术描述：这项为期五年的职业发展计划是一个综合性的研究、教育和推广计划。该研究计划旨在开发新的方法，在纳米尺度上控制量子点和等离子体结构的混合系统中的光-物质相互作用。拟议研究项目的目标有两个方面。第一个探索了一种新的方法，通过使用等离子体门对单个量子点的局部介电环境进行光学修改来操纵和调谐单个量子点的内部能态。这种间接方法利用等离子体结构的强大近场效应作为控制手段，同时避免由于欧姆损耗而对量子点的固有性质产生重大影响。第二部分研究了空间上分离的两个量子点之间通过等离子体波导的相干耦合和非相干耦合，并通过耗散耦合通道建立了两个相互关联的量子点之间的纠缠。这种耦合设计在存在欧姆损耗的情况下保护存储的信息，同时保持由等离子体波导实现的超快光学读出和宽带引导传输。所有这些能力在从超快光开关到量子信息处理的广泛应用中都是非常可取的。该教育计划概述了改善K-12和大学一级STEM教育的坚定承诺。拟议教育计划的目标是开发一种综合方法，将学术学习与课外指导相结合，帮助学生获得成为独立科学家所需的科学、分析和压力管理技能。这一方法是通过振兴当地物理学会学生分会来进行的。此外，还安排了外联活动，通过视觉和互动演示向K-12学校的年轻女性推广纳米技术和光学领域，并让初中和高中女生参与STEM。最后，针对目前物理课程中存在的知识空白，开发了一门新的研究生量子光学课程。

Title: CAREER: Ultrafast traffic control of photons on the nanoscale for optical information processing Abstract:Nontechnical description: Modern day computational devices, from smartphones to supercomputers, all rely on electrons to carry and process information. As the footprint of the basic circuits on a microchip is shrinking to nanometers in size, close proximity of these components can cause an information "traffic jam" due to the interactions between electrons. In order to overcome this limitation, current research efforts are exploring the idea of replacing electrons with photons as the principal carriers of information since they do not interact directly with each other. A photonic device is expected to be superior in terms of speed, bandwidth, and energy efficiency. However, this lack of direct interaction can be a double-edged sword: how can a photon be controlled by another photon in an all-optical device? To answer this conundrum, this proposed project will exploit the electromagnetic confinement and enhancement power of metallic nanostructures to not only guide photons on a nanoscale footprint below their diffraction limit, but to also control, on the timescale of trillionths of a second, how photons are emitted from a nanoscale light source called the quantum dot and where they will go. The key idea is not to rely on the direct photon interaction but rather to use the optically excited metallic nanostructures to strongly modify the quantum dot, which subsequently determines the properties and directions of the produced photon. The successful implementation of these techniques lays the path to ultrafast optical switches or transistors that can lead to a paradigm shift in information processing technology.Technical description: This five-year career-development plan is a comprehensive research, education, and outreach program. The research plan aims to develop new ways of controlling the light-matter interactions on the nanoscale in a hybrid system of quantum dots and plasmonic structures. The objectives of the proposed research project are two folds. The first explores a new approach for manipulating and tuning the internal energy states of a single quantum dot through the optical modification of its local dielectric environment using a plasmonic gate. This indirect method exploits the strong near-field effect of the plasmonic structure as a mean of control while avoiding significant changes to the intrinsic properties of the quantum dot due to ohmic loss. The second investigates the coherent and incoherent couplings between two spatially separated quantum dots via a plasmonic waveguide and establish entanglement between the linked dots through a dissipative coupling channel. This coupled design protects stored information in the presence of ohmic loss while maintaining the ultrafast optical readout and broadband guided transfer enabled by a plasmonic waveguide. All of these capabilities are highly desirable in a wide range of applications from ultrafast optical switches to quantum information processing. The educational plan outlines a deep commitment to improve STEM education at the K-12 and university levels. The objectives of the proposed educational plan aim to develop an integrated approach that combines academic learning with extracurricular guidance to help students gain the scientific, analytical, and stress management skills necessary in becoming an independent scientist. This approach is carried out through the revitalization of the local Society of Physics Student chapter. In addition, outreach activities are structured to promote the field of nanotechnology and optics to young women in K-12 schools through visual and interactive presentations and engage middle and high school girls in STEM. Lastly, a new graduate quantum optics course is developed to address the knowledge gap in the current physics curriculum.