Phys.org February 19, 2016
An international team of researchers (Australia, France) used nanometre-thick films made of gallium arsenide and sandwiched them between two mirrors to manipulate the incoming photons. The photons interact with electron-hole pairs in the semiconductor, forming polaritons that carry properties from both the photons and the electron-hole pairs. The polaritons decay after a few picoseconds, and the photons they release exhibit distinct quantum signatures. While these quantum signatures are weak at the moment, the work opens a new avenue for producing single photons on demand. Once they are able to increase the strength of the quantum signatures, the process is amenable for massively scaling up. It may be possible to make identical quantum emitters from semiconductors by photon nanostructure engineering, rather than the current method of direct materials engineering…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
Credit: Macquarie University