Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

Quantum technologies promise exponential speed-up in computing and guaranteed secure communication. This grant will be used to support research on creating single photon sources for future quantum technologies. Along with single photon detectors, single photon sources are a key component of quantum computing using single photons, quantum cryptography, and flying quantum bits. Compared to single photon detectors that are a relatively mature technology (several products available in the market), single photon sources still need to be developed and there are commercial sources available that provide indistinguishable single photons on demand. Ideally, these photons should be generated in the low-loss optical fiber band. ******To address this need, we are investigating single photon sources based on single Erbium ion single emitters. The patform is based on single Erbium ions that my research group has recently isolated in individual nanocrystals by using nanoaperture optical tweezers. In the proposed project, my group will perform single photon measurements to demonstrate single photon source capability of the single-Erbium containing nanocrystals. If successful, this will impact the field by providing the first deterministic way to provide single photon Erbium emitters, that are highly stable and operate at the desired telecommunication wavelength in the low-loss fiber optic window.