Near-infrared (NIR) single-photon source plays a key role in a wide range of applications in quantum technology. In particular, in quantum communication, the NIR wavelength operation perfectly matches the relatively low-attenuation transmission window of the optical fiber, which attracts more and more research interest. Here, we report the room temperature single-photon emission from single point defects in the aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN) film. The obtained single-photon emission covers from 720 to 930 nm and exhibits highly linear polarization and high photon brightness. This may provide a platform for future integrated on-chip quantum photonic devices.

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Optical polarization has attracted considerable research attention by extra detection dimension in angular space, flourishing modern optoelectronic applications. Nonetheless, purposive polarization controlling at nanoscales and even at the single-particle level constitutes a challenge. Plasmonic nanoantenna opens up new perspectives in polarization state modification. Herein, we report angular-dependent upconversion luminescence (UCL) of rare-earth ions doped upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) in both emission and excitation polarization via constructing angularly anisotropic plasmonic local-field distributions in gold nanorods (Au NRs) antennae with different configurations at a single-particle level. The UCL of UCNP tailored by plasmonic Au NRs nanoantennae is enhanced and exhibits linear polarization. The highest enhancement factor of 138 is obtained in the collinear Au NR-UCNP-Au NR configuration under parallel excitation. Simultaneously, the maximum degree of linear polarization (DOLP) of UCL with factors of 85% and 81% are achieved in the same structure in emission and excitation polarization measurements, respectively. The observed linear polarizations and UCL enhancements are due to varied resonant responses at 660 nm and the anisotropic near-field enhancement in different nanoantennae-load UCNP. The theoretical simulations reveal the periodic changing of near-field enhancement factors of nanoantennae in angular space with the incident light polarization angles and are well-matched with the experimental results.

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Active control of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in metamaterials promises tremendous potential applications. However, previously reported strategies most require sensitive materials as well as additional experimental apparatus, which are inconvenient for on-chip operation and restrain their implementations in fully integrated design. We propose a low-loss all-dielectric metamaterial with orthogonal double bright modes, which shows a narrowband transparency window at 950.05 nm with a high Q-factor of 2111. Just by varying the incident light polarization angle, an on-to-off in-situ EIT modulation without changing Q-factor is perfectly achieved, and the modulation depth can be up to 99.7%. Additionally, optical control of group delay with up to 36.22 ps is also demonstrated. This work provides a simple route to design chip-scale devices with optically dynamic controllability and finds fascinating applications in low-loss active slow light devices, optical switch and sensitive bio-sensing.