Long Range Surface Plasmon Polaritons as an Alternative Information Carrier for Nanoscale Quantum Circuitry

Project Information

QuP

Grant agreement ID: 704998

DOI

10.3030/704998

Project closed

EC signature date 21 March 2016

Start date 1 March 2016

End date 29 December 2018

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 170 121,60

EU contribution

€ 170 121,60

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITAT DE VALENCIA
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - QuP (Long Range Surface Plasmon Polaritons as an Alternative Information Carrier for Nanoscale Quantum Circuitry)

Reporting period: 2016-03-01 to 2018-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The aim of this innovative and high-impact interdisciplinary proposal is to investigate the potential properties and applications (single molecule sensors) of plasmonic nanostructures based on metal perovskite waveguides on silicon substrate that enable the confinement of light to scales beyond the diffraction limit, known as quantum plasmonics.

Latest studies suggest that perovskites could be future aspirants for Si-hybrid photonics that might open up an avenue towards tightly integrated quantum plasmonic circuits, solving the problem of weak nonlinear single-photon interactions. Thus, it could be the stepping stone for the generation of miniaturized photonic components for the quantum control of light. This implies that the SPPs would represent a totally new sort of information carrier for nanoscale circuitry, enabling a revolutionary bridge between current diffraction-limited microphotonics and bandwith-limited nanoelectronics, paving the way for integrated quantum information processing.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

TRAINING:

-Quantum Plasmonic (1st year):
Achievements: At the Prof. Martínez-Pastor’s group, the Fellow has trained the Photon-Interferometric Technique (PIT) implemented through a cryogenic confocal microscopy to perform the measurements of the two-photon correlation function (2PCF) that have demonstrated the quantum operation and/or logical operations defined for the chip

-Single Molecules detection (2nd year):
Achievements: At the Prof. Bradley's group, the Fellow has been involved in both the testing and early use of the Fluorescence Lifetime Scanning Confocal Microscopy for special applications such as long term imaging. This has given the Fellow an insight into the fluorescence lifetime techniques at the Queens Medical Research Institute (QMRI, Edinburgh) and their application to clinical and biological imaging and sensing.
For this achievement, the Fellow had to attend two training courses:
“Laser Safety” (Scottish Microelectronics Centre, Edinburgh), and
“Induction to Health & Safety in Little France” (College of Medicine, Edinburgh)

-Innovative Teaching Methods (1st year):
Achievements: Additionally, I have attended the following training courses, such as
“Formación Integral del Profesorado Universitario” (FIPU, 150 hours) and
“English as a Medium of Instruction” (EMI, 30 hours).
Both were organized by the Staff Development and Educational Innovation Service, that coordinates staff training initiatives of the University of Valencia.

-Research in Experimental Science Didactics (2nd year):
Achievements: The Fellow has also enrolled in the Master's Degree in Research in Specific Didactics, and she has been attending classes to complete her training and improve her employability options.


SCIENTIFIC CASE:

-All-Optical Fibre Hanbury Brown & Twiss (HBT) Interferometer to study single photon emission (1st &2nd year):
Achievements: The Fellow has work in the development of a new HBT interferometer containing a tuneable fibre Bragg Grating optical filtering stage coupled to Geiger mode InGaAs Avalanche Photodiodes for single photon detection. The increase in photon collection efficiency translates into an increment of the Signal to Noise Ratio, and thus it allows the identification of single-photon emission. Single photon emission of a single quantum dot was experimentally observed.

-Parallel Recording of Single Quantum Dot Optical Emission (1st &2nd year):
Achievements: We developed two different measurement setups, that allows for the recording of the quantum dot emission from carrier diffusion between sample positions separated by more than 6 μm. These results show the possibilities offered by multicore fibres for the spectroscopic analysis of single semiconductor quantum dot optical emission.

-MAPbI3 perovskites as a future aspirant for tightly integrated quantum plasmonic circuits on Silicon substrate (1st &2nd year):
Achievements: Our results, shown a series of three articles, suggest that MAPbI3 perovskites could be the future aspirant for Si-hybrid photonics that might open up an avenue towards tightly integrated quantum plasmonic circuits.

-2-months stay in the Centre for Inflammation Research (Prof. Bradley & Prof. Dhaliwal) (2nd year):
Achievements: That has allowed the Fellow the acquirement of relevant knowledge that complement and balance her background on optical sensing and imaging. The research topic was directly connected to the second part of my QuP project. In particular, the Fellow was involved in a new fluorescence lifetime imaging microscope for investigating biomedical phenomena at the Queen's Medical Research Institute. It has a potential impact on early diagnosis and treatment of diseases.


COLLABORATION:
Achievements: A high-quality long-term collaboration between the University of Edinburgh and University of Valencia has been established in the exciting and challenging QuP topic.

TEACHING: 60 hours

DISSEMINATION:
-2nd and 3rd Jornadas Jóvenes Investigadores (ICMUV, Spain) 23rd June 2017 22nd June 2018
-Jornada informativa becas individuales Marie Sklodowska-Curie de Horizonte 2020 (Spain) 23rd June 2017 and 14th May 2018
-Jornada sobre oportunitats en H2020: LLIÇONS APRESES (Spain) 22nd June 2018
-3 Articles already accepted on this topic and 2 articles submitted

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The general goal of this proposal is to investigate the prospect of SPPs as an alternative information carrier for nano-scale quantum plasmonics circuitry on silicon substrate.

In real systems photons rarely interact, and even in nonlinear optical media their interaction is weak at low light levels. Thus, weak nonlinear single-photon interactions are a major obstacle for nano-scale quantum plasmonics circuitry. Consequently, it will be impossible to take advantage of scalability until we have achieved strong nonlinear single-photon interactions. Our results suggest that perovskites have a potential to solve the problem of weak nonlinear single-photon interactions. Therefore, perovskites could be future aspirants for Si-hybrid photonics that might open up an avenue towards tightly integrated quantum plasmonic circuits.

Thus, to reach the objectives of the proposal we have focused on perovskite. In this direction, I have submitted a series of three articles in which I am the first and sole corresponding author, with no contribution of my former supervisors. These preliminary results suggest that MAPbI3 perovskites could be future aspirants for Si-hybrid photonics that might open up an avenue towards tightly integrated quantum plasmonic circuits. The breaking-through ideas of this series of publications are the central result of my self-driven Marie Sklodowska-Curie. This seminal achievement opens a new line of research at the ICMUV in Valencia and consolidates me as a Principal Investigator of a project. The wide interest of this line is demonstrated by the fact that I have been invited to present these results at one International Conference on Multifunctional, Hybrid and Nanomaterials (Work Package 1).

Finally, the Fellow was involved in the development of a revolutionary technology that will provide quick bedside diagnosis and management of lung diseases in the clinical environment at the Centre-for-Inflammation-Research (EPSRC, Edinburgh). Thus, the reasons for carrying out this work was based on its social-, industrial- and scientific- impact, with remarkable societal benefits (Work Package 2).

Perovskite (SEM image)