No Arabic abstract
Optical detection and spectroscopy of single molecules has become an indispensable tool in biological imaging and sensing. Its success is based on fluorescence of organic dye molecules under carefully engineered laser illumination. In this paper we demonstrate optical detection of single molecules on a wide-field microscope with an illumination based on a commercially available, green light-emitting diode. The results are directly compared with laser illumination in the same experimental configuration. The setup and the limiting factors, such as light transfer to the sample, spectral filtering and the resulting signal-to-noise ratio are discussed. A theoretical and an experimental approach to estimate these parameters are presented. The results can be adapted to other single emitter and illumination schemes.
Single-photon sources are essential building blocks in quantum photonic networks, where quantum-mechanical properties of photons are utilised to achieve quantum technologies such as quantum cryptography and quantum computing. Most conventional solid-state single-photon sources are based on single emitters such as self-assembled quantum dots, which are created at random locations and require spectral filtering. These issues hinder the integration of a single-photon source into a scaleable photonic quantum network for applications such as on-chip photonic quantum processors. In this work, using only regular lithography techniques on a conventional GaAs quantum well, we realise an electrically triggered single-photon source with a GHz repetition rate and without the need for spectral filtering. In this device, a single electron is carried in the potential minimum of a surface acoustic wave (SAW) and is transported to a region of holes to form an exciton. The exciton then decays and creates a single photon in a lifetime of ~ 100ps. This SAW-driven electroluminescence (EL) yields photon antibunching with $g^{(2)}(0) = 0.39 pm 0.05$, which satisfies the common criterion for a single-photon source $g^{(2)}(0) < 0.5$. Furthermore, we estimate that if a photon detector receives a SAW-driven EL signal within one SAW period, this signal has a 79%-90% chance of being a single photon. This work shows that a single-photon source can be made by combining single-electron transport and a lateral n-i-p junction. This approach makes it possible to create multiple synchronised single-photon sources at chosen positions with photon energy determined by quantum-well thickness. Compared with conventional quantum-dot-based single-photon sources, this device may be more suitable for an on-chip integrated photonic quantum network.
We demonstrate Cooper-pairs drastic enhancement effect on band-to-band radiative recombination in a semiconductor. Electron Cooper pairs injected from a superconducting electrode into an active layer by the proximity effect recombine with holes injected from a p-type electrode and dramatically accelerate the photon generation rates of a light emitting diode in the optical-fiber communication band. Cooper pairs are the condensation of electrons at a spin-singlet quantum state and this condensation leads to the observed enhancement of the electric-dipole transitions. Our results indicate the possibility to open up new interdisciplinary fields between superconductivity and optoelectronics.
Entangled light emitting diodes based on semiconductor quantum dots are promising devices for security sensitive quantum network applications, thanks to their natural lack of multi photon-pair generation. Apart from telecom wavelength emission, network integrability of these sources ideally requires electrical operation for deployment in compact systems in the field. For multiplexing of entangled photons with classical data traffic, emission in the telecom O-band and tuneability to the nearest wavelength channel in compliance with coarse wavelength division multiplexing standards (20 nm channel spacing) is highly desirable. Here we show the first fully electrically operated telecom entangled light emitting diode with wavelength tuneability of more than 25nm, deployed in an installed fiber network. With the source tuned to 1310.00 nm, we demonstrate multiplexing of true single entangled photons with classical data traffic and achieve entanglement fidelities above 95% on an installed fiber in a city.
Artificial lighting is a widespread technology which consumes large amounts of energy. Triplet-triplet annihilation photochemical upconversion is a method of converting light to a higher frequency. Here, we show theoretically that photochemical upconversion can be applied to Watt-scale lighting, with performance closely approaching the 50% quantum yield upper limit. We describe the dynamic equilibrium of an efficient device consisting of an LED, an upconverting material, and an optical cavity from optical and thermal perspectives.
In the present study, we developed a fabrication process of an electrically driven single-photon LED based on InP QDs emitting in the red spectral range, the wavelength of interest coinciding with the high efficiency window of Si APDs. A deterministic lithography technique allowed for the pre-selection of a suitable QD, here exclusively operated under electrical carrier injection. The final device was characterized under micro-electroluminescence in direct current, as well as in pulsed excitation mode. In particular, under pulsed excitation of one device, single-photon emission of a spectral line, identified as an exciton, has been observed with $g^{(2)}_mathrm{raw}(0)=0.42pm0.02$, where the non-zero $g^{(2)}$-value is mainly caused by background contribution in the spectrum and re-excitation processes due to the electrical pulse length. The obtained results constitute an important step forward in the fabrication of electrically driven single-photon sources, where deterministic lithography techniques can be used to sensibly improve the device performances. In principle, the developed process can be extended to any desired emitter wavelength above $600,mathrm{nm}$ up to the telecom bands.