Nano-resolved sensing of 3D electromagnetic fields via single emitters' extreme variation of enhanced spontaneous emission

TL;DR

This paper presents a 3D plasmonic nanostructure platform that enables nano-resolved sensing of electromagnetic fields by observing enhanced spontaneous emission in single emitters, advancing quantum light-matter interaction control.

Contribution

The study introduces a scalable 3D hollow plasmonic nanomaterial platform for precise control and measurement of single-molecule emission modifications at nanometer resolution.

Findings

Achieved molecular position sensing surpassing diffraction limit.

Demonstrated broad lifetime range from nanoseconds to picoseconds.

Enabled on-demand control of single-photon sources at room temperature.

Abstract

Controlling quantum light-matter interactions at scales smaller than the diffraction limit at the single quantum emitter level is a critical challenge to the goal of advancing quantum technologies. We introduce a novel material platform that enables precise engineering of spontaneous emission changes in molecular single emitters through 3D nanofields. This platform is based on a 3D hollow plasmonic nanomaterial arranged in a square lattice, uniformly scalable to the centimeter scale while maintaining unit cell geometry. This coupled system leads to billions of Purcell-enhanced single emitters integrated into a nanodevice. Using far-field single-molecule super-resolution microscopy, we investigate emission modifications at the single-emitter level, enabling molecular position sensing with resolution surpassing the diffraction limit. By combining the nanolocalization with time correlation single photon counting, we probe molecule per molecule enhanced quantum light-matter interactions. This 3D plasmonic geometry significantly enhances light-matter interactions, revealing a broad range of lifetimes -- from nanoseconds to picoseconds -- significantly increasing the local density of states in a manner that depends on both molecular position and dipole orientation, offering extreme position sensitivity within the 3D electromagnetic landscape. By leveraging these plasmonic nanostructures and our method for measuring single-molecule Purcell-enhanced nano-resolved maps, we enable fine-tuned control of light-matter interactions. This approach enables the on-demand control of fast single-photon sources at room temperature, providing a powerful tool for molecular sensing and quantum applications at the single-emitter level.