Time-Resolved Detection of Photon-Surface-Plasmon Coupling at the Single-Quanta Level

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates time-resolved detection and control of photon-surface-plasmon interactions at the single-quanta level, revealing quantum correlations and enabling programmable plasmon wavepackets for nanoscale light-matter studies.

Contribution

It introduces a method for time-resolved detection of photon-surface-plasmon coupling using entangled photons, advancing quantum control at the nanoscale.

Findings

Detected nonclassical correlations via time-resolved Cauchy-Schwarz inequality.

Achieved programmable temporal wavepackets of single optical plasmons.

Enabled coherent control of light-matter interactions at the single-quanta level.

Abstract

The interplay of nonclassical light and surface plasmons has attracted considerable attention due to fundamental interests and potential applications. To gain more insight into the quantum nature of the photon-surface-plasmon coupling, time-resolved detection of the interaction is invaluable. Here we demonstrate the time-resolved detection of photon-surface-plasmon coupling by exploiting single and entangled photons with long coherence time to excite single optical plasmons. We examine the nonclassical correlation between the single photons and single optical plasmons in such systems using the time-resolved Cauchy-Schwarz inequality. We also realize single optical plasmons with programmable temporal wavepacket by manipulating the waveform of incident single photons. The time-resolved detection and coherent control of single optical plasmons offer new opportunities to study and control the light-matter interaction at the nanoscale.