Highly efficient coupling of photons from nanoemitters into single-mode optical fibers

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a highly efficient method for coupling photons from nanoemitters into single-mode optical fibers using tapered fibers, achieving over 7% efficiency, which is promising for sensing and quantum applications.

Contribution

The study introduces a tapered fiber technique that significantly improves photon coupling efficiency from nanoemitters into optical fibers.

Findings

Coupling efficiency reaches 7.4% for CdSe/ZnS nanocrystals.

Efficiency increases exponentially as taper diameter decreases.

Method shows potential for nanoparticle sensing and single-photon sources.

Abstract

Highly efficient coupling of photons from nanoemitters into single-mode optical fibers is demonstrated using tapered fibers. 7.4 +/- 1.2 % of the total emitted photons from single CdSe/ZnS nanocrystals were coupled into a 300-nm-diameter tapered fiber. The dependence of the coupling efficiency on the taper diameter was investigated and the coupling efficiency was found to increase exponentially with decreasing diameter. This method is very promising for nanoparticle sensing and single-photon sources.