Plasmonic Nanoantennas for Efficient Control of Polarization-Entangled Photon Pairs

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel plasmonic nanoantenna design integrated with a quantum dot that significantly enhances the efficiency and emission rate of polarization-entangled photon pairs, promising advances in quantum photonics.

Contribution

The paper presents a new nanoantenna-based source for polarization-entangled photons that overcomes previous efficiency limitations through integration with a metal mirror.

Findings

Extraction efficiency of ~90% at 1.55 μm

Spontaneous emission enhancement of ~90

Broad spectral range of 330 nm

Abstract

We suggest a novel source of polarization-entangled photon pairs based on a cross-shaped plasmonic nanoantenna driven by a single quantum dot. The integration of the nanoantenna with a metal mirror overcomes the fundamental tradeoff between the spontaneous emission (SE) enhancement and the extraction efficiency typical of microcavity and nanowire-based architectures. With a very-high extraction efficiency of entangled photons (~90%) at 1.55 um and large SE enhancement (~90) over a broad 330 nm spectral range, the proposed design will pave the way toward reliable integrated sources of nonclassical light.