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We experimentally demonstrate the active control of a plasmonic metamaterial operating in the quantum regime. A two-dimensional metamaterial consisting of unit cells made from gold nanorods is investigated. Using an external laser we control the temperature of the metamaterial and carry out quantum process tomography on single-photon polarization-encoded qubits sent through, characterizing the metamaterial as a variable quantum channel. The overall polarization response can be tuned by up to 33% for particular nanorod dimensions. To explain the results, we develop a theoretical model and find that the experimental results match the predicted behavior well. This work goes beyond the use of simple passive quantum plasmonic systems and shows that external control of plasmonic elements enables a flexible device that can be used for quantum state engineering.
In this paper, a novel design concept for active self-adaptive metamaterial (ASAMM) plates is proposed based on an active self-adaptive (ASA) control strategy guided by the particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique. The ASAMM plates consist of an elastic base plate and two periodic arrays of piezoelectric patches. The periodic piezoelectric patches place on the bottom plate surface act as sensors, while the other ones attached on the top plate surfaces act as actuators. A simplified plate model is established by the Hamilton principle. By assuming a uniform or constant plate thickness, the plane wave expansion (PWE) method is adopted to calculate the band structures. The finite element method (FEM) using 2D plate and 3D solid elements is also used to calculate the band structures and the transmission spectra or frequency responses. The conventional displacement, velocity and acceleration feedback control methods are introduced and analyzed. Then, a novel ASA control strategy based on combining the displacement and acceleration feedback control methods and guided by the PSO technique is developed. Numerical results will be presented and discussed to show that the proposed ASAMM plates can automatically and intelligently evolve different feedback control schemes to adapt to different stimulations on demand. Compared to the conventional metamaterial (MM) plates, the proposed ASAMM plates exhibit improved and enhanced band-gap characteristics and suppression performance for flexural waves at frequencies outside the band-gaps
The control of quantum states of light at the nanoscale has become possible in recent years with the use of plasmonics. Here, many types of nanophotonic devices and applications have been suggested that take advantage of quantum optical effects, despite the inherent presence of loss. A key example is quantum plasmonic sensing, which provides sensitivity beyond the classical limit using entangled N00N states and their generalizations in a compact system operating below the diffraction limit. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate the excitation and propagation of a two-plasmon entangled N00N state (N=2) in a silver nanowire, and assess the performance of our system for carrying out quantum sensing. Polarization entangled photon pairs are converted into plasmons in the silver nanowire, which propagate over a distance of 5 um and re-convert back into photons. A full analysis of the plasmonic system finds that the high-quality entanglement is preserved throughout. We measure the characteristic super-resolution phase oscillations of the entangled state via coincidence measurements. We also identify various sources of loss in our setup and show how they can be mitigated, in principle, in order to reach super-sensitivity that goes beyond the classical sensing limit. Our results show that polarization entanglement can be preserved in a plasmonic nanowire and that sensing with a quantum advantage is possible with moderate loss present.
Two-dimensional (2D) materials and heterostructures have recently gained wide attention due to potential applications in optoelectronic devices. However, the optical properties of the heterojunction have not been properly characterized due to the limited spatial resolution, requiring nano-optical characterization beyond the diffraction limit. Here, we investigate the lateral monolayer MoS2-WS2 heterostructure using tip-enhanced photoluminescence (TEPL) spectroscopy on a non-metallic substrate with picoscale tip-sample distance control. By placing a plasmonic Au-coated Ag tip at the heterojunction, we observed more than three orders of magnitude photoluminescence (PL) enhancement due to the classical near-field mechanism and charge transfer across the junction. The picoscale precision of the distance-dependent TEPL measurements allowed for investigating the classical and quantum tunneling regimes above and below the ~320 pm tip-sample distance, respectively. Quantum plasmonic effects usually limit the maximum signal enhancement due to the near-field depletion at the tip. We demonstrate a more complex behavior at the 2D lateral heterojunction, where hot electron tunneling leads to the quenching of the PL of MoS2, while simultaneously increasing the PL of WS2. Our simulations show agreement with the experiments, revealing the range of parameters and enhancement factors corresponding to various regimes. The controllable photoresponse of the lateral junction can be used in novel nanodevices.
We give an overview of different paradigms for control of quantum systems and their applications, illustrated with specific examples. We further discuss the implications of fault-tolerance requirements for quantum process engineering using optimal control, and explore the possibilities for architecture simplification and effective control using a minimum number of simple switch actuators.
A quantum metamaterial can be implemented as a quantum coherent 1D array of qubits placed in a transmission line. The properties of quantum metamaterials are determined by the local quantum state of the system. Here we show that a spatially-periodic quantum state of such a system can be realized without direct control of the constituent qubits, by their interaction with the initializing (priming) pulses sent through the system in opposite directions. The properties of the resulting quantum photonic crystal are determined by the choice of the priming pulses. This proposal can be readily generalized to other implementations of quantum metamaterials.