表面等离激元量子信息应用研究进展

Recent progress of the application of surface plasmon polariton in quantum information processing

近年来表面等离激元得到了越来越多的关注和研究,得益于其能把电磁场束缚在金属-介质界面附近的亚波长尺度范围内.本文回顾了近年来表面等离激元在量子信息领域中的理论和实验研究,包括表面等离激元的基本量子性质、表面等离激元量子回路、在量子尺度下与物质的相互作用及其潜在应用.量子表面等离激元开辟了对表面等离激元基本物理性质研究的新方向,可以应用于高度集成化的量子集成光学回路,同时也可以用来增强光与量子发光体的相互作用.

Surface plasmon polariton has attracted more and more attention and has been studied extensively in the recent decades,owing to its ability to confine the electro-magnetic field to a sub-wavelength scale near the metal-dielectric interface.On one hand,the tightly confined surface plasmonic modes can reduce the size of integrated optical device beyond the diffraction limit;on the other hand,it provides an approach to enhancing the interaction between light and matter.With the development of experimental and numerical simulation techniques,its investigation at a quantum level has become possible.In the recent experiments,scientists have realized quantum interference between single plasmons in a nanoscale waveguide circuit and achieved the strong coupling between photons and single molecules by using plasmonic structure,which demonstrates its superiority over the traditional optics.Here,we review the theoretical and experimental researches of surface plasmon polariton in the field of quantum information processing.First,we introduce the experiments on the basic quantum properties of surface plasmons,including the preservation of photonic entanglement,wave-particle duality and quantum statistical property.Second,we review the research work relating to the generation,manipulation and detection of surface plasmons in a quantum plasmonic integrated circuit.Then,we present the research of the interaction between surface plasmons and single quantum emitters and its potential applications.Finally,we make a discussion on how the intrinsic loss affects the quantum interference of single plasmons and the coupling between quantum emitters.The collision and combination of quantum optical and plasmonic fields open up possibilities for investigating the fundamental quantum physical properties of surface plasmons.It can be used to make ultra-compact quantum photonic integrated circuits and enhance the interaction strength between photons and quantum emitters.