Carbon nanotubes as emerging quantum-light sources

Abstract

Progress in quantum computing and quantum cryptography requires efficient, electrically triggered, single-photon sources at room temperature in the telecom wavelengths. It has been long known that semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) display strong excitonic binding and emit light over a broad range of wavelengths, but their use has been hampered by a low quantum yield and a high sensitivity to spectral diffusion and blinking. In this Perspective, we discuss recent advances in the mastering of SWCNT optical properties by chemistry, electrical contacting and resonator coupling towards advancing their use as quantum light sources. We describe the latest results in terms of single-photon purity, generation efficiency and indistinguishability. Finally, we consider the main fundamental challenges stemming from the unique properties of SWCNTs and the most promising roads for SWCNT-based chip integrated quantum photonic sources.

Nonradiative Excited‐State Decay via Conical Intersection in Graphene Nanostructures

“…[32] In contrast, the other 20 trajectories only show deviations in the emission energies around the equilibrium (~2.3 eV) until the end of the simulation (at the final step of these 20 trajectories, the oscillator strengths of the S 1 -S 0 transitions are predicted to vary from 0.0772 to 0.1604, proving the optically allowed nature of the transitions; see Table S3 for details). [38,39] Figure 3 shows the results of a representative trajectory, which takes 188.5 fs to reach the CI point, at which the potential energy surfaces of S 1 and S 0 state almost cross and the S 1 -S 0 state energy difference is merely 0.14 eV (The structural evolution during the simulation of this trajectory can be found in Movie S1.). [37] It is predictable that such fast nonradiative decays can be a nonnegligible competitor to the radiative decay channels and thus affect the luminescent efficiencies of the materials.…”

“…Another important outcome of the present results is that such competition may lead to luminescence blinking, which is a phenomenon that has been observed by experiments for graphene-related materials. [38,39] Figure 3 shows the results of a representative trajectory, which takes 188.5 fs to reach the CI point, at which the potential energy surfaces of S 1 and S 0 state almost cross and the S 1 -S 0 state energy difference is merely 0.14 eV (The structural evolution during the simulation of this trajectory can be found in Movie S1.). For the molecular structure, the initial lengths of the CÀ O bonds are 1.43 and 1.44 Å, respectively; at the CI point, the corresponding lengths change to 1.35 and 2.22 Å (see Movie S1 and also Table S3 for structural information).…”

Binding affinity and conformational preferences influence kinetic stability of short oligonucleotides on carbon nanotubes

“…Single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) comprise a key component of many new nanotechnology applications for sensing, biological imaging, electronics, and gene delivery, among others [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] . Noncovalent polymer adsorption is a widely used method to confer and optimize desired functionalities to SWNTs, while solubilizing them in aqueous environments.…”

Numerical study of Wigner negativity in one-dimensional steady-state resonance fluorescence

“…Special effort has been put into creation of the single-photon Fock state [12][13][14] due to its usefulness for a multitude of quantum information applications, including quantum computing [15,16]. Single-photon sources have been engineered for a variety of different platforms [17][18][19][20][21]. Moreover, propagating pure superpositions of vacuum, single and two-photons have been generated in superconducting circuits [22] and with quantum dots [23].…”