PhD Proposal: Vijin Kizhake Veetil
Location
Off Campus : via Webex
Date & Time
May 18, 2020, 11:00 am – 1:00 pm
Description
ADVISOR: Dr. Matthew Pelton
TITLE: Controlled Coupling of Individual Emitters to Plasmons
ABSTRACT: The exponential increase in computational power that has enabled our information technology society has been based on the continuous miniaturization of electronic components, particularly silicon based transistors. Although the physical dimensions of devices have continued to reduce for about half a century, the scaling is approaching fundamental physical limits. The addition of more and more transistors in integrated circuits (ICs) will lead to high power density issues which is ultimately detrimental to the operation of the devices. Replacing electronic components with photonic components has the potential to overcome this problem, but only if such optical devices can be built on the nanometer scale with picosecond or faster operation times and with lower operational energies than silicon transistors. A comparable miniaturization of photonic devices has only recently begun to occur, driven by the ability to fabricate plasmonic metal nanostructures that confine optical fields to nanoscale dimensions far below the conventional diffraction limit. The extreme confinement of optical fields leads to strong light-matter interactions, enabling low-energy operation. Optical modulators formed by coupling emitters to plasmons could be a promising route to replace electro-optic modulators in transceivers for low-energy and high speed operations.
In this project, we will work towards building an optical modulator by coupling a single quantum dot (QD) to a plasmon resonance in an end-to-end pair of gold bipramids (GBPs). We will demonstrate an induced transparency in the strong optical scattering of GBP-QD-GBP trimer structures. The transparency can be eliminated when the QD absorbs a single photon, thereby enabling this nanoparticle assembly to serve as an ultrasmall, ultrafast, low-power optical modulator. We will also demonstrate a first step towards fully atom-based photonic devices by coupling single atom-scale emitters embedded in silicon to surface plasmons in metal nanostructures on the silicon surface. The next step is to develop a fabrication method to controllably implant single impurities through nanoscale holes in plasmonic metal nanostructures and demonstrate efficient coupling of optical emission from individual impurities to plasmon resonances in the metal nanostructures. As silicon is an indirect bandgap material, it poses the risk of not producing any luminescent transitions when implanted with impurities. If silicon proves to be infeasible, we will achieve the above mentioned goals using a different solid state material like silicon carbide or gallium nitride as the host. If we are successful in accomplishing these goals, we will take the next step towards atom-based plasmonic circuits by demonstrating plasmon-mediated coupling between two individual impurities.
Proposal will be held using Webex.
TITLE: Controlled Coupling of Individual Emitters to Plasmons
ABSTRACT: The exponential increase in computational power that has enabled our information technology society has been based on the continuous miniaturization of electronic components, particularly silicon based transistors. Although the physical dimensions of devices have continued to reduce for about half a century, the scaling is approaching fundamental physical limits. The addition of more and more transistors in integrated circuits (ICs) will lead to high power density issues which is ultimately detrimental to the operation of the devices. Replacing electronic components with photonic components has the potential to overcome this problem, but only if such optical devices can be built on the nanometer scale with picosecond or faster operation times and with lower operational energies than silicon transistors. A comparable miniaturization of photonic devices has only recently begun to occur, driven by the ability to fabricate plasmonic metal nanostructures that confine optical fields to nanoscale dimensions far below the conventional diffraction limit. The extreme confinement of optical fields leads to strong light-matter interactions, enabling low-energy operation. Optical modulators formed by coupling emitters to plasmons could be a promising route to replace electro-optic modulators in transceivers for low-energy and high speed operations.
In this project, we will work towards building an optical modulator by coupling a single quantum dot (QD) to a plasmon resonance in an end-to-end pair of gold bipramids (GBPs). We will demonstrate an induced transparency in the strong optical scattering of GBP-QD-GBP trimer structures. The transparency can be eliminated when the QD absorbs a single photon, thereby enabling this nanoparticle assembly to serve as an ultrasmall, ultrafast, low-power optical modulator. We will also demonstrate a first step towards fully atom-based photonic devices by coupling single atom-scale emitters embedded in silicon to surface plasmons in metal nanostructures on the silicon surface. The next step is to develop a fabrication method to controllably implant single impurities through nanoscale holes in plasmonic metal nanostructures and demonstrate efficient coupling of optical emission from individual impurities to plasmon resonances in the metal nanostructures. As silicon is an indirect bandgap material, it poses the risk of not producing any luminescent transitions when implanted with impurities. If silicon proves to be infeasible, we will achieve the above mentioned goals using a different solid state material like silicon carbide or gallium nitride as the host. If we are successful in accomplishing these goals, we will take the next step towards atom-based plasmonic circuits by demonstrating plasmon-mediated coupling between two individual impurities.
Proposal will be held using Webex.
