SPIN SPACE - Spatially encoded telecoms and quantum technologies using spin-enabled all-optical switching

SPIN SPACE - 使用自旋全光交换进行空间编码的电信和量子技术

基本信息

批准号：
EP/M024156/1
负责人：
Ruth Oulton
金额：
$ 107.35万
依托单位：
University of Bristol
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2015
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2015 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FM024156%2F1
关键词：
SPIN SPACE Spatially encoded telecoms

项目摘要

Our planet is criss-crossed with optical fibres that influence almost every aspect our lives in the 21st century. However, despite the great advances in optical fibre communications technologies that have occurred in the past 20 years, we have already almost run out of data capacity. With more of the world online, and the "Internet of Things" predicted to connect up to a trillion devices in the next 20 years, we need to find better ways of overcoming fundamental limits in how much data we can send. Also looming on the horizon are new technologies that may use optical fibre telecommunication networks, such as quantum optics technologies, sending, for example, completely secure data using single photons. However, sending many of these photons but keeping each one separate is a major challenge.In answer to these new technologies, it has been suggested that sending information via a microstructured fibre may offer solutions to the challenges above. Microtructured fibres are rather like a stick of Brighton rock with a pattern running through. The simplest of these may be several cores running in parallel but optically isolated, whilst more complex designs involve controlled light leakage between the cores, or indeed a honeycomb structure with light travelling in the air. Recent ideas propose sending a pattern of light (either a light intensity pattern or a pattern of polarization) through the microstructured fibre with complex changes in the pattern containing encoded information.While much work is presently being carried out on signal propagation in microstructured fibres, it is clear that to create the signal, a means of producing a spatial laser pattern is required that can switch pattern over GHz timescales. More importantly, to perform functions such as rerouting signals from one area of the array or changing the pattern one requires a device with an optical input and output to be fed into the later fibre network. Switching an array using electrical contacts is tricky - one needs to individually access many micron-sized areas at fast speeds. We propose that if small (few micrometer) lasers are fabricated into a small forest of pillars that emit individual points of light vertically, we can generate complex patterns easily. We use a semiconductor laser, where the spin, the electron's intrinsic magnet, interacts differently depending on the light polarization - in some cases the photon is absorbed, in other cases the spin is in the wrong direction and the light passes through. We will thus control light pulses to flip the spins and perform optical logic in spatial arrays of these devices. This will allow incoming signals to be switched and re-routed.When the laser power is turned down, and very specific frequencies are used, we find that the light becomes intrinsically "grainy" - and turns into individual photons. We also know that the semiconductor can be prepared so that it behaves like a collection of atoms - at very specific wavelengths, the photon only "sees" one electron. Rather like an atom, the photon may be absorbed and an electron gains energy - however in our case it also interacts with the electron's spin. When the electron drops from its excited state and emits a photon, the photon has changed polarization. We can then filter out the outgoing photons from the incoming ones and use the scattered photons as a "single photon source" - where exactly one photon is produced per optical pulse. This source allows completely secure information to be sent, and is the starting point for photon quantum computing, where many of these individual photons are made to interact and encode information for a quantum computer.

我们的星球横断了光纤，这些光纤几乎影响了我们在21世纪的生活。但是，尽管过去20年中发生的光纤通信技术取得了巨大进步，但我们已经几乎没有数据容量了。随着世界上更多的在线以及预计将在未来20年内连接到数万亿个设备的“物联网”，我们需要找到更好的方法来克服我们可以发送多少数据的基本限制。同样在地平线上迫在眉睫的是新技术，它们可能使用光纤电信网络，例如量子光学技术，例如，使用单个光子发送完全安全的数据。但是，发送许多这些光子，但是将每个光子分开是一个重大挑战。在回答这些新技术时，有人建议通过微结构纤维发送信息可以为上述挑战提供解决方案。微污染纤维就像布莱顿岩石的棍棒，图案贯穿。其中最简单的可能是几个并行运行但光学隔离的核心，而更复杂的设计涉及核心之间受控的光泄漏，或者确实是蜂窝结构，而蜂窝结构的光线却在空中传播。 Recent ideas propose sending a pattern of light (either a light intensity pattern or a pattern of polarization) through the microstructured fibre with complex changes in the pattern containing encoded information.While much work is presently being carried out on signal propagation in microstructured fibres, it is clear that to create the signal, a means of producing a spatial laser pattern is required that can switch pattern over GHz timescales.更重要的是，要执行诸如阵列一个区域的重新路由信号或更改模式的功能，需要具有光输入和输出的设备，以便将其输入后来的光纤网络。使用电气触点切换阵列很棘手 - 需要以快速的速度单独访问许多微米大小的区域。我们建议，如果将很小的（几微米）激光器捏成一块小支柱森林，这些柱子垂直发射光点，我们可以轻松生成复杂的图案。我们使用半导体激光器，其中自旋（电子的固有磁体）根据光偏振的不同 - 在某些情况下吸收了光子，在其他情况下，自旋朝着错误的方向且光线通过。因此，我们将控制光脉冲以翻转旋转并在这些设备的空间阵列中执行光学逻辑。这将允许切换并重新路由传入的信号。当激光功率降低并使用非常具体的频率时，我们发现光本质上是“粒状”的，并变成了单个光子。我们还知道，半导体可以制备，使其表现得像原子的集合 - 在非常特定的波长下，光子仅“看到”一个电子。就像原子一样，光子可以被吸收并获得电子能量 - 但是在我们的情况下，它也与电子的自旋相互作用。当电子从其激发态下掉落并排放光子时，光子就会改变极化。然后，我们可以从传入的光子中滤除传出的光子，并使用散射的光子作为“单个光子源” - 在该光学脉冲中准确产生一个光子。该来源允许发送完全安全的信息，并且是光子量子计算的起点，其中许多单独的光子都用于与量子计算机进行交互和编码信息。

项目成果

期刊论文数量（10）

专著数量（0）

科研奖励数量（0）

会议论文数量（0）

专利数量（0）

A model for confined Tamm plasmon devices

受限Tamm等离子体激元装置的模型

DOI：
10.48550/arxiv.1809.07512
发表时间：
2018
期刊：
影响因子：
0
作者：
Adams M
通讯作者：
Adams M

Optimal simultaneous measurements of incompatible observables of a single photon

DOI：
10.1364/optica.6.000257
发表时间：
2018-08
期刊：
Optica
影响因子：
10.4
作者：
A. Dada;W. McCutcheon;E. Andersson;J. Crickmore;I. Puthoor;B. Gerardot;A. McMillan;J. Rarity;R. Oulton
通讯作者：
A. Dada;W. McCutcheon;E. Andersson;J. Crickmore;I. Puthoor;B. Gerardot;A. McMillan;J. Rarity;R. Oulton

Model for confined Tamm plasmon devices