Materials Research Lecture

Nanophotonic structures that localize photons in sub-wavelength volumes are possible today thanks to modern nanofabrication and optical design techniques. Such structures enable studies of new regimes of light-matter interaction, quantum and nonlinear optics, and new applications in computing, communications, and sensing. While our traditional quantum nanophotonics platform is based on InAs quantum dots inside GaAs photonic crystal cavities [1], I will also review our progress on alternative material systems diamond and silicon carbide [2-3], which could potentially bring the described experiments to room temperature and facilitate scaling to large networks of resonators and emitters.  Finally, the use of inverse design nanophotonic methods [4], that can efficiently perform physics-guided search through the full parameter space, leads optical devices with properties superior to state of the art, including smaller footprints, better field localization, and novel functionalities.

1. Nature Photonics,vol. 10, pp. 163-166  (2016) 2. Complete Coherent Control of Silicon-Vacancies in Diamond Nanopillars Containing Single Defect Centers, arXiv:1701.04961 3. Scalable Quantum Photonics with Single Color Centers in Silicon Carbide, arXiv:1612.02874 4. Nature Photonics 9, 374–377 (2015)