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High Resolution Phonon-assisted Quasi-resonance Fluorescence Spectroscopy
Published on: June 28, 2016
Orbitally Resolved Single-Photon Emission from an Individual Atomic Vacancy Center in a Semiconductor
Gagandeep Singh1, Xiaodan Lyu1, Bi Qi Chong1
1Division of Physics and Applied Physics, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 637371, Singapore.
Researchers used a scanning tunneling microscope to trigger single-photon emission from atomic defects in semiconductors. This breakthrough enables atomic-scale control for quantum light sources and spin-photon interfaces.
Area of Science:
- Quantum optics
- Materials science
- Nanotechnology
Background:
- Atomically confined spins are key for quantum optoelectronic devices like qubits and sensors.
- Interrogating single spins at the atomic scale is challenging due to optical diffraction limits.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate a method for triggering and detecting single-photon emission from individual atomic vacancy centers.
- To achieve atomic-scale spatial resolution for probing quantum emitters.
Main Methods:
- Utilizing energetic charge carriers injected from an atomically sharp scanning tunneling microscope probe.
- Employing photon-correlation measurements to confirm single-photon emission characteristics.
Main Results:
- Achieved highly localized excitation with <1 nm spatial resolution.
- Observed single-photon emission from individual atomic vacancy centers in a layered semiconductor.
- Confirmed single-photon emission via photon antibunching signatures and correlated light emission with vacancy orbital symmetry.
Conclusions:
- This work presents a significant advancement in creating electrically addressable single-atom quantum light sources.
- The study paves the way for developing atomic-scale solid-state spin-photon interfaces.
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