Localised Excitation of a Single Photon Source by a Nanowaveguide
Geng, Wei and Manceau, Mathieu and Rahbany, Nancy and Sallet, Vincent and De Vittorio, Massimo and Carbone, Luigi and Glorieux, Quentin and Bramati, Alberto and Couteau, Christophe

Scientific reports 6, 19721 (2016)

Scientific reports 6, 19721  (2016)

Nowadays, integrated photonics is a key technology in quantum information processing (QIP) but achieving all-optical buses for quantum networks with efficient integration of single photon emitters remains a challenge. Photonic crystals and cavities are good candidates but do not tackle how to effectively address a nanoscale emitter. Using a nanowire nanowaveguide, we realise an hybrid nanodevice which locally excites a single photon source (SPS). The nanowire acts as a passive or active sub-wavelength waveguide to excite the quantum emitter. Our results show that localised excitation of a SPS is possible and is compared with free-space excitation. Our proof of principle experiment presents an absolute addressing efficiency {\eta}a\,\textasciitilde\,10-4 only \textasciitilde 50\% lower than the one using free-space optics. This important step demonstrates that sufficient guided light in a nanowaveguide made of a semiconductor nanowire is achievable to excite a single photon source. We accomplish a hybrid system offering great potentials for electrically driven SPSs and efficient single photon collection and detection, opening the way for optimum absorption/emission of nanoscale emitters. We also discuss how to improve the addressing efficiency of a dipolar nanoscale emitter with our system.