Abstract
A single quantum emitter can possess a very strong intrinsic nonlinearity, but its overall promise for nonlinear effects is hampered by the challenge of efficient coupling to incident photons. Common nonlinear optical materials, on the other hand, are easy to couple to but are bulky, imposing a severe limitation on the miniaturization of photonic systems. In this Letter, we show that a single organic molecule acts as an extremely efficient nonlinear optical element in the strong coupling regime of cavity quantum electrodynamics. We report on single-photon sensitivity in nonlinear signal generation and all-optical switching. Our work promotes the use of molecules for applications such as integrated photonic circuits operating at very low powers.
- Received 4 May 2021
- Accepted 12 August 2021
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.133603
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by the Max Planck Society.
Published by the American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Focus
Turning On a Light Beam with a Single Molecule
Published 24 September 2021
A single molecule can switch a beam of photons on or off, a potentially useful function for a quantum computer.
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