Proposal for compact solid-state III-V single-plasmon sources

TL;DR

This paper introduces a compact, integrated III-V semiconductor single-plasmon source operating at near-infrared wavelengths, enhancing efficiency and decay rates through an ultra-small cavity, with potential applications in scalable quantum networks.

Contribution

It presents a novel design of a single-plasmon source with an analytical model and simulations, demonstrating significant efficiency and decay rate enhancements.

Findings

The cavity increases the beta-factor by 70%.

The spontaneous decay rate is boosted by a factor of 20.

The design is compatible with integrated quantum network architectures.

Abstract

We propose a compact single-plasmon source operating at near-infrared wavelengths on an integrated III-V semiconductor platform, with a thin ridge waveguide serving as the plasmon channel. By attaching an ultra-small cavity to the channel, it is shown that both the plasmon generation efficiency ({\beta}) and the spontaneous-decay rate into the channel can be significantly enhanced. An analytical model derived with the Lorentz reciprocity theorem captures the main physics involved in the design of the source and yields results in good agreement with fully-vectorial simulations of the device. At resonance, it is predicted that the ultra-small cavity increases the {\beta}-factor by 70% and boosts the spontaneous decay rate by a factor 20. The proposed design could pave the way towards integrated and scalable plasmonic quantum networks. Comparison of the present design with other fully-dielectric competing approaches is addressed.