Hyperbolic Metamaterial Resonator-Antenna Scheme for Large, Broadband Emission Enhancement and Single Photon Collection

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel hyperbolic metamaterial resonator-antenna scheme that significantly enhances broadband single-photon emission and collection efficiency from silicon carbide quantum emitters, outperforming previous designs.

Contribution

It introduces a combined HMM resonator and gold antenna design that achieves high Purcell factors and collection rates over a broad spectrum, advancing single-photon source technology.

Findings

Purcell factor of about 250 for perpendicular dipoles

Broadband collection rate (CPR) of about 30 from 700 nm to 1000 nm

Peak CPR of about 80 at 900 nm, surpassing previous designs

Abstract

We model the broadband enhancement of single-photon emission from color centres in silicon carbide nanocrystals coupled to a planar hyperbolic metamaterial, HMM resonator. The design is based on positioning the single photon emitters within the HMM resonator, made of a dielectric index-matched with silicon-carbide material. The broadband response results from the successive resonance peaks of the lossy Fabry Perot structure modes arising within the high-index HMM cavity. To capture this broadband enhancement in the single photon emitters spontaneous emission, we placed a simple gold based cylindrical antenna on top of the HMM resonator. We analyzed the performance of this HMM coupled antenna structure in terms of the Purcell enhancement, quantum efficiency, collection efficiency and overall collected photon rate. For perpendicular dipole orientation relative to the interface, the HMM coupled antenna resonator leads to a significantly large spontaneous emission enhancement with Purcell factor of the order of 250 along with a very high average total collected photon rate, CPR of about 30 over a broad emission spectrum, 700 nm to 1000 nm. The peak CPR increases to about 80 at 900 nm, corresponding to the emission of silicon-carbide quantum emitters. This is a state of the art improvement considering the previous computational designs have reported a maximum average CPR of 25 across the nitrogen-vacancy centre emission spectrum, 600 nm to 800 nm with the highest value being about 40 at 650 nm.