Experimental Demonstration of Quantum Overlapping Tomography

Quantum tomography is one of the major challenges of large-scale quantum information research due to the exponential time complexity. In this Letter, we develop and apply a Bayesian state estimation method to experimentally demonstrate quantum overlapping tomography [Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 100401 (2020)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.124.100401], a scheme intent on characterizing critical information of a many-body quantum system in logarithmic time complexity. By comparing the measurement results of full-state tomography and overlapping tomography, we show that overlapping tomography gives accurate information of the system with much fewer state measurements than full-state tomography.

Toroidal optical transitions in hydrogen-like atoms

It is commonly believed that electromagnetic spectra of atoms and molecules can be fully described by interactions involving electric and magnetic multipoles. However, it has recently become clear that interactions between light and matter also involve toroidal multipoles-toroidal absorption lines have been observed in electromagnetic metamaterials. Here, we show that a previously unexplored type of spectroscopy of the hitherto largely neglected toroidal dipolar interaction becomes feasible if, apart from the classical r × r × p toroidal dipole density term responsible for the toroidal transitions in metamaterials, the spin-dependent r × σ term (which only occurs in relativistic quantum mechanics) is taken into account. Toroidal dipole operators are odd under parity and time-reversal symmetries; toroidal dipole transitions can therefore be distinguished from electric multipole and magnetic dipole transitions.

Quantum Interference of Resonance Fluorescence from Germanium-Vacancy Color Centers in Diamond

Resonance fluorescence from a quantum emitter is an ideal source to extract indistinguishable photons. By using the cross-polarization to suppress the laser scattering, we observed resonance fluorescence from GeV color centers in diamond at cryogenic temperature. The Fourier-transform-limited line width emission with T₂/2T₁ ∼ 0.86 allows for two-photon interference based on single GeV color center. Under pulsed excitation, the separated photons exhibit a Hong-Ou-Mandel quantum interference above classical limit, whereas the continuous-wave excitation leads to a coalescence time window of 1.05 radiative lifetime. In addition, we demonstrated a single-shot readout of spin states with a fidelity of 74%. Our experiments lay down the foundation for building a quantum network with GeV color centers in diamond.

Optical Gating of Resonance Fluorescence from a Single Germanium Vacancy Color Center in Diamond

Scalable quantum photonic networks require coherent excitation of quantum emitters. However, many solid-state systems can undergo a transition to a dark shelving state that inhibits the resonance fluorescence. Here, we demonstrate that by a controlled gating using a weak nonresonant laser, the resonant fluorescence can be recovered and amplified for single germanium vacancies. Employing the gated resonance excitation, we achieve optically stable resonance fluorescence of germanium vacancy centers. Our results are pivotal for the deployment of diamond color centers as reliable building blocks for scalable solid-state quantum networks.

Room temperature nanocavity laser with interlayer excitons in 2D heterostructures

Atomically thin layered two-dimensional (2D) materials have provided a rich library for both fundamental research and device applications. Bandgap engineering and controlled material response can be achieved from artificial heterostructures. Recently, excitonic lasers have been reported using transition metal dichalcogenides; however, the emission is still the intrinsic energy bandgap of the monolayers. Here, we report a room temperature interlayer exciton laser with MoS₂/WSe₂ heterostructures. The onset of lasing was identified by the distinct kink in the "L-L" curve and the noticeable spectral linewidth collapse. Different from visible emission of intralayer excitons in monolayer components, our laser works in the infrared range, which is fully compatible with the well-established technologies in silicon photonics. Long lifetime of interlayer excitons relaxes the requirement of the cavity quality factor by orders of magnitude. Room temperature interlayer exciton lasers might open new perspectives for developing coherent light sources with tailored optical properties on silicon photonics platforms.

Giant Enhancement of Cathodoluminescence of Monolayer Transitional Metal Dichalcogenides Semiconductors

Monolayer two-dimensional transitional metal dichalcogenides, such as MoS₂, WS₂, and WSe₂, are direct band gap semiconductors with large exciton binding energy. They attract growing attentions for optoelectronic applications including solar cells, photodetectors, light-emitting diodes and phototransistors, capacitive energy storage, photodynamic cancer therapy, and sensing on flexible platforms. While light-induced luminescence has been widely studied, luminescence induced by injection of free electrons could promise another important applications of these new materials. However, cathodoluminescence is inefficient due to the low cross-section of the electron-hole creating process in the monolayers. Here for the first time we show that cathodoluminescence of monolayer chalcogenide semiconductors can be evidently observed in a van der Waals heterostructure when the monolayer semiconductor is sandwiched between layers of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) with higher energy gap. The emission intensity shows a strong dependence on the thicknesses of surrounding layers and the enhancement factor is more than 500-fold. Strain-induced exciton peak shift in the suspended heterostructure is also investigated by the cathodoluminescence spectroscopy. Our results demonstrate that MoS₂, WS₂, and WSe₂ could be promising cathodoluminescent materials for applications in single-photon emitters, high-energy particle detectors, transmission electron microscope displays, surface-conduction electron-emitter, and field emission display technologies.

Focused electromagnetic doughnut pulses and their interaction with interfaces and nanostructures

"The "focused doughnut", a single-cycle electromagnetic perturbation of toroidal topology with inseparable time and spatial dependencies propagates at the speed of light in vacuum, as was shown by Hellwarth and Nouchi in 1996. While normal incidence reflection and refraction of conventional electromagnetic pulses in isotropic media do not lead to polarization changes, "focused doughnut" pulses undergo complex field transformations owing to the toroidal field structure and the presence of longitudinal components. We also demonstrate that "focused doughnuts" can interact strongly with structured media exciting dominant dynamic toroidal dipoles in spherical dielectric particles."

A flat lens with tunable phase gradient by using random access reconfigurable metamaterial

The first demonstration of an optofluidic metamaterial is reported where resonant properties of every individual metamolecule can be continuously tuned at will using a microfluidic system. This is called a random-access reconfigurable metamaterial, which is used to provide the first demonstration of a tunable flat lens with wavefront-reshaping capabilities.

Photophysical investigation of charge recombination in CdS/ZnO layers of CuIn(S,Se)2 solar cell

Femtosecond transient photocurrents were measured on CuIn(S,Se)₂ solar cell devices. The reasons for lower EQE below 450 nm wavelength excitations were investigated.

Diffractive micro bar codes for encoding of biomolecules in multiplexed assays

Microparticles incorporating micrometer-sized diffractive bar codes have been modified with oligonucleotides and immunoglobulin Gs to enable DNA hybridization and immunoassays. The bar codes are manufactured using photolithography of a chemically functional commercial epoxy photoresist (SU-8). When attached by suitable linkers, immobilized probe molecules exhibit high affinity for analytes and fast reaction kinetics, allowing detection of single nucleotide differences in DNA sequences and multiplexed immunoassays in <45 min. Analysis of raw data from assays carried out on the diffractive microparticles indicates that the reproducibility and sensitivity approach those of commercial encoding platforms. Micrometer-sized particles, imprinted with several superimposed diffraction gratings, can encode many million unique codes. The high encoding capacity of this technology along with the applicability of the manufactured bar codes to multiplexed assays will allow accurate measurement of a wide variety of molecular interactions, leading to new opportunities in diverse areas of biotechnology such as genomics, proteomics, high-throughput screening, and medical diagnostics.

High capacity tagging using nanostructured diffraction barcodes

We describe a new non-contact high capacity optical tagging technique based on the use of nanostructured barcodes. The tags are generated from a number of superimposed diffraction gratings. Capacity for up to 68,000 distinguishable tags has been demonstrated, however current technological capability shall allow encoding of up to 10(9) distinguishable particles, each of which is only 100 microm long.

Optical whirlpool on an absorbing metallic nanoparticle

The power-flow lines of light interacting with a metallic nanoparticle, in the proximity of its plasmon resonance, form whirlpool-like nanoscale optical vortices. These vortices were independently observed using analytical Mie theory and 3D finite element numerical modelling of the Maxwell equations. Two different types of vortex have been detected. The outward vortex first penetrates the particle near its centerline then, on exiting the particle, the flow-lines turn away from the centerline and enter a spiral trajectory. Outward vortices are seen for the wavelengths shorter then the plasmon resonance. For the wavelengths longer that the plasmon resonance the vortex is inward: the power-flow lines pass around the sides of the particle before turning towards the centerline and entering the particle to begin their spiral trajectory.

Dispersion properties of nonradiating configurations: finite-difference time-domain modeling

A finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) numerical analysis is used to demonstrate that a toroidal solenoid, coaxial with an electric dipole, is a remarkable nonradiating configuration. It can be used to measure the dielectric permittivity of any ambient matter. It becomes a directional radiator at an interface between two dielectric media, depositing energy in the material with the highest polarizability.

Cross-wavelength all-optical switching using nonlinearity of liquefying gallium

The gallium/silica interface optical nonlinearity associated with a light-induced structural phase transition from a-gallium to a more reflective, more metallic phase shows an exceptionally broadband spectral response. It allows 40% deep nanosecond/microsecond cross-wavelength intensity modulation between signals at 1.3 and 1.55aem.