Room-temperature efficient single-photon generation from CdSe/ZnS nanoplateletes

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that colloidal CdSe/ZnS nanoplatelets can serve as efficient, room-temperature single-photon sources with high purity, advancing their potential for quantum photonic applications.

Contribution

It is the first to show room-temperature single-photon emission from CdSe/ZnS nanoplatelets with high purity, highlighting their suitability for quantum technologies.

Findings

Achieved photon purity as low as g^{(2)}(0)=0.04

Demonstrated effective single-photon generation at room temperature

Identified that increasing shell thickness reduces blinking and bleaching

Abstract

In the search for materials for quantum information science applications, colloidal semiconductor nanoplatelets (NPLs) have emerged as a highly promising new class of materials due to their interesting optical properties, such as narrow emission linewidth and fast photoluminescence (PL) lifetimes at room temperature. So far only few works focused on the quantum properties of their emission, however, NPLs, with their atomic-scale thickness and one-dimensional quantum confinement, are promising candidates for single-photon sources. Here, we demonstrate room-temperature single-photon emission from core/shell CdSe/ZnS NPLs, which feature 8$x$20 nm$^2$ surface area and 1 nm shell. The limited surface area ensures effective Auger non-radiative recombination, resulting in highly efficient single-photon generation with values of photon purity as low as $g^{(2)}(\tau)=0.04$. The observed long-period blinking and bleaching, typical of such thin shells, can be easily reduced by increasing the shell thickness. This work establishes NPLs as new single-photon sources very well suited for integration into quantum photonic systems.