Electric and optical manipulation of 2D excitons for room temperature polariton blockade and valley qubits

量子技术正在被利用来提供在经典物理范围内无法实现的功能和特性。例如，量子通信和信息越来越依赖于具有强烈非经典性质的光束来交换量子保护的信息。然而，光子之间缺乏相互作用限制了它们在处理任务中的使用。为此，将光量子与固态量子元素中的物质激发进行杂交，可能会为实现量子比特之间的相互作用提供一种很好的方法。目前，许多类似于人造原子的量子平台已经成功地用于产生单光量子，但这些系统的光子波长与物理尺寸之间的失配阻碍了它们在光腔中的集成，这将通过光子的限制来极大地提高它们的性能。最近在自组装同质双层原子薄半导体(过渡金属二卤化物，TMD)中发现了环境稳定且电场可调的层间激子，这为在光腔的强关联区域开辟室温光子/物质混合量子平台提供了前所未有的机会。这一雄心勃勃的探索是我们跨学科提案的重点，该提案旨在探索一类新的量子二能级系统(量子比特)。通过在层状TMD中利用极化子阻塞到量子水平，即单极化子，可以确保在室温操作中取得突破。领先的实验者(Russo教授和Lagoudakis教授)和具有互补核心专业知识(光子学、2D材料和量子光电子学)的理论家(Portnoi教授和Kyriienko博士)与他们的学术(莱切大学)和工业项目合作伙伴(IBM和WaveOptics)的协同互动将成为将这一雄心勃勃的科学发现发射到突破性量子系统的蹦床。

Quantum technologies are being harnessed to deliver functionalities and properties otherwise unattainable within the confines of classical physics. For example, quantum communication and information are increasingly reliant on light beams with strongly non-classical properties for the exchange of quantum-protected information. However, the lack of interaction between photons limits their use for processing tasks. To this end, the hybridization of the light quanta to material excitations in a solid-state quantum element may offer an elegant way forward to implement the interaction between quantum bits. Presently a number of quantum platforms analogous to artificial atoms have been successfully used to generate single light quanta, yet the mismatch between the photon wavelength and the physical size of these systems hinders their integration in optical cavities which would greatly enhance their performance through the confinement of photons. The recent discovery of ambient-stable and electric field tuneable interlayer excitons in self-assembled homobilayers atomically thin (2D) semiconductors (transition metal dichalcogenides, TMD), offers an unprecedented opportunity to pioneer room temperature hybrid photon/matter quantum platforms in the strongly correlated regime in optical cavities. This ambitious quest is the focus of our interdisciplinary proposal which aims to explore a new class of quantum two-level systems (qubits). The envisioned breakthrough in the room temperature operation will be secured by exploiting polariton blockade down to the quantum level, i.e. single-polariton, in layered TMDs. The synergic interaction of leading experimentalists (Prof Russo and Prof Lagoudakis) and theorists (Prof Portnoi and Dr Kyriienko) with complementary core expertise (photonics, 2D material and quantum opto-electronics) and their academic (University of Lecce) and industrial project partners (IBM and WaveOptics) will be the trampoline for launching this ambitious science discovery into ground-breaking quantum systems.