SPUD: Single-Photon Unimolecular Devices

SPUD：单光子单分子器件

• 批准号: EP/Y02513X/1
• 负责人: Andrea Vezzoli
• 金额: $ 204.7万
• 依托单位: University of Liverpool
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FY02513X%2F1
• 关键词: SPUD; Single; Photon; Unimolecular; Devices

Single-photon emitters play a key role in quantum information processing, with the prospect of faster and more secure communication, computing with increased efficiency and metrology/sensing with unprecedented sensitivity. Of the possible existing technologies, electrically-driven sources based on "single-quantum" emitters - isolated two-level systems - offer significant advantages in terms of future scalability, low operational costs, ease of integration in existing classical devices and possible monolithic fabrication. There is, however, still no "ideal" on-demand (deterministic) single-photon emitter, and every proposed technology suffers from efficiency drawbacks or provides challenges in scaling beyond the laboratory proof-of-concept. The race for the ideal single-photon source is on. In SPUD, I propose to use single molecules, electrically wired and chemically soldered to two nanoelectrodes ("single-molecule junctions"), as single-photon sources. The two-level nature of isolated single-molecules results in a theoretically ideal behaviour for non-classical light emission, and they can also offer reduced size, a vast explorable chemical space of myriad of structures, ease of integration in hybrid devices and they rely on inexpensive and non-toxic materials - carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, etc. All these properties have been known since the early 1990s, but only recent development allow their stable and reproducible integration in electronic circuits, thus offering the enticing possibility of using them to convert electrical current into light, one photon at a time. In this project, we will demonstrate that single-molecule junctions can be efficient, on-demand single-photon sources, and that the experimental freedom granted by their structure offers a unique platform for the exploitation of their properties, merging the fields of molecular electronics and molecular photonics to deliver a uniquely tailorable class of devices for future quantum technologies.

单光子发射器在量子信息处理中发挥着关键作用，有望实现更快、更安全的通信、更高效率的计算以及前所未有的灵敏度的计量/传感。在可能的现有技术中，基于“单量子”发射器（隔离的两级系统）的电驱动源在未来可扩展性、低运营成本、易于集成到现有经典设备和可能的单片制造方面提供了显着的优势。然而，仍然没有“理想的”按需（确定性）单光子发射器，并且每种提出的技术都存在效率缺陷或在超出实验室概念验证的扩展方面带来挑战。寻找理想单光子源的竞赛已经开始。在 SPUD 中，我建议使用单分子，通过电线和化学方法焊接到两个纳米电极（“单分子结”），作为单光子源。孤立的单分子的两级性质导致了理论上理想的非经典光发射行为，它们还可以提供更小的尺寸、无数结构的巨大可探索化学空间、易于集成到混合设备中，并且它们依赖于廉价且无毒的材料 - 碳、氮、氧等。所有这些特性自 20 世纪 90 年代初以来就已为人所知，但直到最近的发展才允许它们在电子电路中稳定且可重复地集成，从而提供了使用的诱人可能性它们将电流转化为光，一次一个光子。在这个项目中，我们将证明单分子结可以是高效的、按需的单光子源，并且其结构赋予的实验自由度为利用其特性提供了一个独特的平台，融合了分子电子学领域和分子光子学，为未来的量子技术提供独特的可定制设备。