| EPSRC Reference: |
GR/M43883/01 |
| Title: |
ENHANCING SPONTANEOUS EMISSION WITH SURFACE PLASMON POLARITONS TO PRODUCE A NEW SINGLE PHOTON SOURCE |
| Principal Investigator: |
Barnes, Professor WL |
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| Department: |
Physics |
| Organisation: |
University of Exeter |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research (Pre-FEC) |
| Starts: |
26 April 1999 |
Ends: |
25 October 2001 |
Value (£): |
159,924
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Atoms & Ions |
Lasers & Optics |
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| EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications: |
| No relevance to Underpinning Sectors |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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Efficient and reliable sources of single photon are required for both basic research into the quantum properties of light, and in applications including quantum computing and cryptography. Single florescent molecules or atoms are one potential source because they can only emit one photon at a time. Previously, solutions containing florescent molecules have been placed in microcavities. However, problems with the diffusion of molecules in and out of the pumping region, together with photo-bleaching of the fluorescent species, have meant that practical single photon sources are still not available. This project will employ the spontaneous emission from rare-earth ions embedded in a metallic microcavity to overcome these problems. The use of a solid containing the emitters will prevent diffusion, whilst the use of rare-earth ions removes the problem of photo-bleaching. A significant new feature of this work will be the use of surface plasmon plariton modes of the metallic microcavity to enhance the spontaneous emission rate by up to a factor of approx. 25. This power will be recovered by suing wavelength scale periodic microstructures to couple the surface plasmon polariton modes to useful radiation. It should thus be possible to demonstrate single photon sources with a high radiative efficiency.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.ex.ac.uk |