CAREER: Designer Halide Perovskite Nanocrystals with Controlled Light-Matter Interactions for On-Demand Quantum Light Sources

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。非技术描述量子原理提供了超越当前技术的计算、通信和传感的新范式。开发许多这些下一代平台的核心是光源，这种光源可以按需独特地产生相同的单一光粒子(光子)。以最佳的性能和易于集成的设计获得这样的信号源一直是一个长期的挑战。这项研究的重点是利用新兴的材料类别，以纳米粒子的形式在溶液中开发和研究这样一个最佳平台。这项研究将与教育和外联活动密切结合起来。其目标是使纳米和量子科学教育更有效、更具包容性和更容易获得，并与新兴应用程序日益增长的跨学科框架保持一致。这将通过为高中生开发新的互动课程材料、通过虚拟现实开展的教育活动和推广视频来实现。该项目将对单个卤化物钙钛矿量子点的确定性控制与对其局部电磁环境和晶格结构的工程相结合，以设计、研究和增强具有受控光-物质相互作用的发射体的光物理性质，以稳定、确定和难以区分地产生单光子。这项研究将由四个主要目标推动：1)开发设计钙钛矿型量子点，并在单个发射器水平上进行控制。2)研究和确定稳定、高纯度和相干的单光子产生的结构-组成-性质关系。3)利用发射体-纳米腔耦合系统进行不可分辨的光子发射，从而调整其光物理性质。4)研究了控制晶格应变对发射特性的影响。总而言之，这项研究将使人们全面了解卤化物钙钛矿纳米晶作为量子光按需光源的前景。通过使胶体发射器平台具有确定性的单光子发射，以及可控但可扩展的处理能力，结果有助于解决易于集成的按需单光子源的迫切需要的技术差距。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Non-technical descriptionQuantum principles offer new paradigms of computing, communication and sensing that outperform the current technologies. Central to developing many of these next-generation platforms are light sources that can uniquely generate identical single particles of light (photons) on-demand. Achieving such sources with optimal performance and easily integrable design has been a long-standing challenge. This research focuses on developing and studying such an optimal platform using emerging classes of materials, in the form of nanoscale particles in solution. This research will be closely integrated with education and outreach activities. The objective is to make nano and quantum science education more effective, inclusive and accessible, and in line with the growing cross-disciplinary framework of the emerging applications. This will be achieved by developing new interactive course materials, educational activities through virtual reality, and outreach videos for high school students.Technical descriptionThis project combines deterministic control of individual halide perovskite quantum dots with engineering of their local electromagnetic environment and lattice structure to design, study and enhance the photophysical properties of the emitters with controlled light-matter interactions for stable, deterministic and indistinguishable single photon generation. The research will be driven by four main objectives: 1) Develop designer perovskite quantum dots with control at an individual emitter level. 2) Investigate and identify the structure-composition-property relationships underlying a stable, high purity and coherent single photon generation. 3) Tailor the photophysical properties using an emitter-nanocavity coupled system for indistinguishable photon emission. 4) Investigate the effects of controlled lattice strain on the emission characteristics. Collectively, this research will lead to a comprehensive understanding of the prospects of halide perovskite nanocrystals as on-demand sources of quantum light. By enabling a colloidal emitter platform with deterministic single photon emission, and controlled yet scalable processibility, the results help address the much-needed technology gap of easily integrable on-demand single photon sources.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.