In the field of quantum plasmonics, surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in combination with quantum optics is studied. At SDU Nano Optics, we study coupling of quantum emitters to localized plasmons and plasmonic waveguide modes. SPPs allow for confinement of modes much beyond the diffraction limit for some structures. This confinement leads to efficient coupling of quantum emitters to the plasmonic modes. Coupling of quantum emitters to SPPs enhances their emission rate, and changes their emission pattern. Quantum emitters coupled efficiently to localized plasmons can generate single photons at a high rate, which has applications in quantum cryptography, for example. Similarly, quantum emitters efficiently coupled to waveguide modes has various applications in quantum optics, for example, in devising a single photon switch and in entanglement of emitters. Our work within quantum plasmonics is supported by the ERC advanced grant PLAQNAP.
Some of our research papers for further details can be found below:
- Plasmonic Waveguide-Integrated Nanowire Laser, Nano Letter , 2017, 17, 747−754 [PDF]
- Coupling of nitrogen-vacancy centers in a nanodiamond to a silver nanocube, Opt. Mater. Express 6, 3394 (2016). [PDF]
- Excitation of surface plasmon polariton modes with multiple nitrogen vacancy centers in single nanodiamonds, J. Opt. 18, 024002 (2016). [PDF]
- Local excitation of surface plasmon polaritons using nitrogen-vacancy centers, Opt. Lett. 40, 3830 (2015). [PDF]
- Coupling of individual quantum emitters to channel plasmons, Nat. Commun. 6, 7883 (2015). [PDF]
- Relaxation dynamics of a quantum emitter resonantly coupled to a coherent state of a localized surface plasmon, Faraday Discuss. 178, 295 (2015). [PDF]
- Quantum emitters near layered plasmonic nanostructures: decay rate contributions, ACS Photonics 2, 228 (2015). [PDF]