Collaborative Research: CQIS: On-Chip Nanoscale Trap and Enhance Device (NOTED) for Quantum Photonics

量子技术有望带来安全数据通信、先进计算和改进传感的新功能。在这些应用中，光子在传递量子信息方面起着至关重要的作用。因此，开发量子光源，单光子和纠缠光子，对于推进这些应用和通过新技术/能力产生社会影响至关重要。然而，许多现有的产生量子光的技术都受限于它们在时间上随机产生光子或光子产生率低，而且它们主要在自由空间中操作。这项工作旨在实现一种能够快速组装并提高片上单光子产生速率的设备。它将为跨多个长度尺度的量子光发射器的操作和增强提供新的信息，实现片上单光子生产的原型设备，并通过创建虚拟实验室练习和模拟为培训新一代量子光学科学家开发资源。该项目旨在实现“纳米级发射极对接”，同时克服准原子非经典光源的两个突出挑战-在室温下快速精确地集成发射极和发射增强（陷阱和增强）。我们通过与标准低损耗光子骨干（Si/SiN）配对的非共振等离子体结构进行工程热和光空间分布来实现这一目标。这样做可以实现“多尺度漏斗”，协同结合电热等离子体力（mm）、负热反射力（μm）和光学梯度力（nm），将单个发射器与电磁热点对接，从而增强发射（Purcell效应），提高发射速率和稳定性。通过这种方法，我们(A)确定地路由、捕获并最终将单个量子发射器（~ 20nm）在几秒钟内以低于10nm的精度打印到纳米级热点，(B)将发射速率提高到1000倍，以实现ghz速率，(C)以dB/mm级损耗激发、捕获和引导片上光。所提出的努力将最终展示一个可扩展和通用的平台，用于在室温下集成按需ghz速率单光子源，这将加速紧凑量子密钥分配系统和量子模拟器的扩展。此外，光学梯度力、有吸引力的负热电泳力和远程电热等离子体流在发射器输运和等离子体腔热点位置的协同集成尚未得到探索，这将为芯片上的远程、精确和强光学操作提供强有力的手段。这种操作（以及整个提议的器件结构）也是通用的，不依赖于任何发射器的特性，解决了现有的异构集成挑战。它也可以并行完成，允许同时加载整个晶圆，开辟了扩展源构建的途径。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Quantum technologies are poised to usher in new capabilities for secure data communication, advanced computing, and improved sensing. In these applications, photons play a crucial role in transferring quantum information. Thus, developing sources of quantum light, single and entangled photons, is essential for advancing these applications and generating societal impact through new technologies/capabilities. Yet many of the existing techniques for producing quantum light are limited by their random production of photons in time or poor rate of photon production, and, they largely operate in free space. This work seeks to realize a device that is able to rapidly assemble and improve the rate of single photon production on-chip. It will provide new information into the manipulation and enhancement of quantum optical emitters across multiple length scales, realize a prototype device for single photon production on-chip, and develop resources for training a new generation of quantum optical scientists through the creation of virtual laboratory exercises and simulations.This project intends to realize ‘nanoscale emitter dock’ to simultaneously overcome two outstanding challenges for quasi-atom non-classical light sources - rapid and precise integration of an emitter alongside emission enhancement (trap and enhance) at room temperature. We accomplish this by engineering thermal and optical spatial distributions through non-resonant plasmonic structures paired with a standard low-loss photonic backbone (Si/SiN) for excitation and routing. Doing so enables a ‘multi-scale funnel’, synergistically combining electrothermoplasmonic (mm), negative thermophoretic (μm), and optical gradient forces (nm), to dock a single emitter with an electromagnetic hot-spot where strong enhancement to emission (Purcell effect) improves both the emission rate and stability. Through this we (A) deterministically route, capture, and ultimately print single quantum emitters (~20 nm) to a nanoscale hot-spot within seconds with sub-10 nm precision, (B) enhance the emission rate up to 1000× to achieve GHz-rates, (C) excite, capture, and guide light on-chip with dB/mm-scale loss.The proposed effort will culminate in the demonstration of a scalable and versatile platform for integrated on-demand GHz-rate single photon sources at room temperature, that will accelerate the expansion of compact quantum key distribution systems and quantum simulators. Moreover, the synergistic integration of optical gradient force, attractive negative thermophoretic force, and long-range electrothermoplasmonic flow for emitter transport and placement at plasmonic cavity hotspots have not been explored, and would provide a powerful means for long-range, precise, and strong optical manipulation on-chip. This manipulation (and the overall proposed device structure) is also general, and not dependent upon the properties of any emitter, solving existing heterogeneous integration challenges. It can also be completed in parallel, allowing an entire wafer to be loaded simultaneously, opening a route to scale source construction.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.