Project title: Organic dye molecules coupling to nanocavities for single photon sources

Supervisors: Alex Clark and Ed Hinds

Project description:
Cryogenically cooled organic dye molecules are excellent sources of indistinguishable photons [1]. They can, however, be drastically improved through the use of optical cavities [2]. Integrated nano-cavities are inherently stable, as they are in the solid state, and have small mode volumes comparable with the wavelength of light. When a quantum emitter, such as a dibenzoterrylene (DBT) molecule, is placed at the correct position within such a cavity the emitter will preferentially emit photons into a single spatial-spectral-polarisation mode and can also do so at a much faster rate than it would have done outside the cavity – known as Purcell enhancement. This project aims to design and fabricate nanophotonic cavities, such as bullseye grating cavities and Gaussian defect cavities, and characterise their coupling to DBT molecules.

[1] S. Grandi et al., Phys. Rev. A 94, 063839 (2016).

[2] M. Trupke et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 87, 211106 (2005).