Optically Addressing Single Rare-Earth Ions in a Nanophotonic Cavity

Tian Zhong, Jonathan M. Kindem, John G. Bartholomew, Jake Rochman, Ioana Craiciu, Varun Verma, Sae Woo Nam, Francesco Marsili, Matthew D. Shaw, Andrew D. Beyer, and Andrei Faraon

Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 183603 – Published 31 October 2018

Abstract

We demonstrate optical probing of spectrally resolved single ${Nd}^{3 +}$ rare-earth ions in yttrium orthovanadate. The ions are coupled to a photonic crystal resonator and show strong enhancement of the optical emission rate via the Purcell effect, resulting in near radiatively limited single photon emission. The measured high coupling cooperativity between a single photon and the ion allows for the observation of coherent optical Rabi oscillations. This could enable optically controlled spin qubits, quantum logic gates, and spin-photon interfaces for future quantum networks.

Received 20 March 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.183603

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Atoms, ions, & molecules in cavities Cavity quantum electrodynamics Nanophotonics Photon statistics Quantum optics Quantum optics with artificial atoms Quantum states of light Single photon sources

Rare-earth doped crystals

Atomic, Molecular & Optical

Authors & Affiliations

Tian Zhong^1,2,3,*, Jonathan M. Kindem^1,2, John G. Bartholomew^1,2, Jake Rochman^1,2, Ioana Craiciu^1,2, Varun Verma⁴, Sae Woo Nam⁴, Francesco Marsili⁵, Matthew D. Shaw⁵, Andrew D. Beyer⁵, and Andrei Faraon^1,2,†

¹Kavli Nanoscience Institute and Thomas J. Watson, Sr., Laboratory of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
²Institute for Quantum Information and Matter, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
³Institute for Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
⁴National Institute of Standards and Technology, 325 Broadway, MC 815.04, Boulder, Colorado 80305, USA
⁵Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California 91109, USA