Download Revisiting quantum optics with surface plasmons

Revisiting quantum optics with surface plasmons
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F. Marquier1, M.C. Dheur1, B. Vest1, E. Devaux2, T.W. Ebbesen2, J.J. Greffet1
Laboratoire Charles Fabry, Institut d'Optique, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, 91127 Palaiseau cedex, France
Institut de Science et d'Ingénierie Supramoléculaire, CNRS, Université de Strasbourg, 67000 Strasbourg, France
Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) result from collective oscillations of free electrons
coupled to an electromagnetic field at a plane interface between a metal and a dielectric medium. As
photons, SPPs can be considered either as waves or as bosonic particles [1] and they can experience
striking quantum interferences such as Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) effect [2].
We use in this paper a plasmonic platform (Fig.1) that can convert photons into plasmons,
and separate or recombine them on a plasmonic beamsplitter [3]. Single SPPs are excited using
single photons created by parametric down conversion into a periodically-poled KTP crystal. The
platform is placed in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer in order to vary the path difference between
SPPs before impinging on the beamsplitter. The setup
allows us to revisit quantum optics experiments using
SPP as carriers of the quantum of energy. Using the
same device, we can test the wave-particle duality,
two-particle (HOM) interference and non-local
control of single plasmon interference using the
entanglement between a photon and a SPP [4]. In the
case of the HOM experiment, we demonstrate that the
losses can be used as a new degree of freedom [5].
Playing with the dephasing between transmission and Fig.1: Plasmonic platform used for the quantum
reflection coefficient of the beamsplitter, we can optics experiment (B). It consists in two SPP
launchers (A), a plasmonic beamsplitter, and two
observe a peak instead of the usually expected dip in slits to convert SPP to photons in the glass
the HOM interference (Fig.2), i.e. an anti-coalescence substrate. The plasmonic interference can thus be
effect of SPP.
probed using single photon counting modules.
Fig2: HOM experiment on a lossy plasmonic beamsplitter, whose
complex amplitude reflection and transmission factors are denoted r and t
respectively. The usual HOM dip is observed when r = it (left), a peak in
the coincidence rate is shown when r = t.
In this talk, we will introduce the
plasmonic device main features as
well as the different quantum
plasmonics experiments that have
been performed thanks to the SPP
beamsplitter. These results are
essential to understand the SPP
quantum behavior or to develop
hybrid plasmon-photon systems for
potential future applications in
quantum communication mediated
by SPP.
[1] JM Elson and R.H. Ritchie, Phys. Rev. B 4, 4129 (1971)
[2] J.S. Fakonas et al., Nat. Phot. 8, 317 (2014)
[3] M.C. Dheur et al. , Sc. Advances 2, e151574 (2016)
[4] M.C. Dheur et al. ArXiv 1610.07493, B. Vest et al. ArXiv 1610.07479
[5] S. Barnett et al., Phys. Rev. A 57, 2134 (1998)