Controlling Single‐Photon Emission with Ultrathin Transdimensional Plasmonic Films

Abstract

The properties of a two‐level quantum dipole emitter near an ultrathin transdimensional plasmonic film are studied theoretically. The model system studied mimics a solid‐state single‐photon source device. Using realistic experimental parameters, the spontaneous and stimulated emission intensity profiles are computed as functions of the excitation frequency and film thickness, followed by the analysis of the second‐order photon correlations to explore the photon antibunching effect. It is shown that ultrathin transdimensional plasmonic films can greatly improve photon antibunching with thickness reduction, which allows one to control the quantum properties of light and make them more pronounced. Knowledge of these features is advantageous for solid‐state single‐photon source device engineering and overall for the development of the new integrated quantum photonics material platform based on the transdimensional plasmonic films.

Far- and Near-Field Heat Transfer in Transdimensional Plasmonic Film Systems

“…Present-day nanofabrication techniques make it possible to produce ultrathin films of precisely controlled thickness down to a few monolayers. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] Often referred to as transdimensional (TD) quantum materials, [10][11][12][13][14] such films offer high tailorability of their electronic and optical properties not only by altering their chemical and electronic composition (stoichiometry, doping) but also by varying their thickness (the number of monolayers). [14][15][16][17][18][19][20] Plasmonic TD materials (ultrathin metallic films) are irreplaceable for studies of the fundamental properties of the light-matter interaction as it evolves from a single 2D atomic layer to a larger number of layers approaching the 3D bulk material properties.…”

“…11,14 They offer controlled light confinement and large tailorability of their optical properties due to their thickness-dependent localized surface plasmon (SP) modes. [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] The strong vertical quantum confinement makes these modes distinct from those of conventional thin films commonly described either by 2D or by 3D material properties with boundary conditions on their top and bottom interfaces. [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] Their properties can be understood in terms of the confinement-induced nonlocal Drude electromagnetic response theory proposed 15 and verified experimentally 10,30 recently.…”

“…The electromagnetic response nonlocality was earlier reported experimentally to be a remarkable intrinsic property of quantum-confined metallic nanostructures. 31,32 It is this nonlocality that enables a variety of new quantum phenomena in ultrathin TD plasmonic film systems, including the thickness-controlled plasma frequency red shift, 10,15 the low-temperature plasma frequency dropoff, 30 the SP mode degeneracy lifting, 14,33 a series of quantum-optical 13 and nonlocal magneto-optical effects, 16 as well as quantum electronic transitions that are normally forbidden. 12,34,35 The confinement-induced nonlocal Drude EM response theory is built on the Keldysh-Rytova (KR) pairwise electron interaction potential 15 (and so referred to as the KR model in what follows for brevity).…”

Far‐ and Near‐Field Heat Transfer in Transdimensional Plasmonic Film Systems

“…[11,14] They offer controlled light confinement and large tailorability of their optical properties due to their thickness-dependent localized surface plasmon (SP) modes. [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] The strong vertical quantum confinement makes these modes distinct from those of conventional thin films commonly described either by 2D or by 3D material properties with boundary conditions on their top and bottom interfaces. [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] Their properties can be understood in terms of the confinement-induced nonlocal Drude electromagnetic (EM) response theory proposed [15] and verified both experimentally [10,30] and computationally [3,31] recently.…”

“…The EM response nonlocality was earlier reported experimentally to be a remarkable intrinsic property of quantum-confined metallic nanostructures. [32,33] It is this nonlocality that enables a variety of new quantum phenomena in ultrathin TD plasmonic film systems, including the thickness-controlled plasma frequency red shift, [10,15] the low-temperature plasma frequency dropoff, [30] the SP mode degeneracy lifting, [14,34] a series of quantum-optical [13] and nonlocal magneto-optical effects, [16] as well as quantum electronic transitions that are normally forbidden. [12,35,36] The confinement-induced nonlocal Drude EM response theory is built on the Keldysh-Rytova (KR) pairwise electron interaction potential [15] (and so referred to as the KR model in what follows for brevity).…”