Materials engineering and quantum technologies - from visible single photon sources to terahertz devices

先进的材料制备和表征技术，以及对其晶体结构或这种结构的扰动对其光学和电子性能影响的了解，为微电子、电信和科学计算领域的革命性技术发展铺平了道路。材料工程在微米和纳米尺度的最新进展使未来量子和光电子技术的创新材料的设计成为可能：超灵敏传感器、单光子源、太赫兹发射器和探测器等。这些技术的发展可以受益于对发光缺陷或自旋缺陷环境的更好控制，在制造平面等离子体结构或各种金属薄膜或二维材料的垂直堆积方面的更高精度。这项研究计划的目的是提高我们对这类固态材料的光学和电学性质的基本理解。在接下来的五年里，我们的努力将集中在微纳制造技术的使用上(薄膜沉积、离子轰击、热退火、表面图案化等)。以控制这些材料的性能，并改善将在其中集成这些材料的器件的特性。将特别关注单光子发射体的物理，大禁带半导体中某些点缺陷的自旋特性，二维材料和普通金属/磁性层异质结的电荷和自旋输运性质，以及自旋电子学和光子学之间的耦合。用于这些研究的表征工具将涉及量子光学、连续和时间分辨光学光谱技术、共聚焦光学显微镜和太赫兹光谱技术。在NSERC的支持下，我们将在理解物理现象和确定关键结构参数方面取得进展，以改善量子器件的特性，并设计新的器件，包括单光子源、磁场传感器、宽带太赫兹发射器。这个研究项目是实验性的，与我在量子研究所和舍布鲁克大学跨学科创新技术研究所的主要合作者密切互动。这些设备的开发及其与光子或电信平台的集成将受益于与魁北克量子光子学网络和位于安大略省渥太华的加拿大国家研究委员会的研究人员的密切合作。我们的发现将有助于发展新的量子和光电子技术。

Advanced techniques for materials fabrication and characterization, together with an understanding of the influence of their crystal structure or perturbations of such structure on their optical and electronic properties, have paved the way for revolutionary technological developments in microelectronics, telecommunications and scientific computing. Recent advances in materials engineering at the micro- and nano-scales enable the design of innovative materials for tomorrow's quantum and optoelectronic technologies: ultrasensitive sensors, single photon sources, terahertz emitters and detectors, etc. The development of such technologies can benefit from a better control of the environment of luminescent defects or spin defects, a higher precision in the fabrication of planar plasmonic structures or in the vertical stacking of various thin metallic films or two-dimensional materials. The goal of this research program is to improve our fundamental understanding of the optical and electronic properties of such solid state materials. Over the next five years, our efforts will focus on the use of micro- and nano-fabrication techniques (thin film deposition, ion bombardment, thermal annealing, surface patterning, etc.) to control the properties of these materials and improve the characteristics of the devices in which these materials will be integrated. Particular attention will be paid to the physics of single photon emitters, the spin character of certain point defects in large band-gap semiconductors, the charge and spin transport properties of two-dimensional materials and normal metal/magnetic layer heterostructures, as well as the coupling between spintronics and photonics. The characterization tools used for these studies will involve quantum optics, continuous and time-resolved optical spectroscopic techniques, confocal optical microscopy, and terahertz spectroscopic techniques. With the support of NSERC, we will make progress in understanding the physical phenomena and in identifying key structural parameters to improve the characteristics of quantum devices and to design novel devices, including single photon sources, magnetic field sensors, broadband terahertz emitters. This research program, being experimental in nature, is conducted in close interaction with my main collaborators at the Institut quantique and at the Institut Interdisciplinaire d'Innovation Technologique of the Université de Sherbrooke. The development of the devices and their integration into photonic or telecommunication platforms will benefit from strong collaborations with researchers from the Quantum Photonics Network in Quebec and the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario. Our discoveries will help in the development of new quantum and optoelectronic technologies.