Thomas Babinec, Stanford: Quantum Photonic Devices

Meet Tom Babinec, Stanford researcher who works in the field of nanoscale and quantum photonics. Tom will share with us his recent work at Stanford and Harvard, and his ideas on how it can be used for quantum crypto/key distribution and challenges ahead.

Title: “Quantum Photonic Devices Based on Single Dopants in Solids”

Tremendous progress has been made in the development of high-purity semiconductor materials so that their optoelectronic properties can now be controlled at the level of a single active dopant [1]. These individual impurities, which are quantum systems embedded in a solid-state host, possess diverse applications in quantum information science and technology[2]. As a simple and noteworthy example, single photons emitted from an optically active dopant may be used to share secure bits via quantum cryptographic key distribution [3].

In this talk, I highlight several approaches towards realizing quantum photonic devices based on single dopants in solids. I describe several photonic device architectures for improving the performance of these systems, including nanowire waveguides offering high single photon collection efficiency [4], ultrasmall mode volume nanometallic resonators [5] and high quality factor photonic crystals cavities [6] offering spontaneous emission rate enhancement. Coupling these nanophotonic devices to quantum systems such as single color centers and epitaxial quantum dots may be achieved via classical materials science techniques such as ion implantation and molecular beam epitaxy. Finally, these ingredients may be mixed in diverse and technologically relevant materials such as diamond, gallium arsenide and silicon carbide. All together, these are proof-of-concept demonstrations that tools of photonic engineering, materials science and nanoscience may be applied to emerging problems in quantum information science and technology.

Biography:

Thomas (Tom) Babinec received a B.S. with highest honors in physics and mathematics from The University of Michigan in 2007, and a PhD in applied physics from Harvard University in 2012. In 2007 he was awarded a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate fellowship in physics as well the National Science Foundation Graduate student fellowship in materials science. Major research accomplishments include first author publications in “Nature Nanotechnology” and “Nature Photonics” journals, 3 journal cover articles (including “Nature Nanotechnology”) and 1 book cover (“Optical Engineering of Diamond”). He is currently a Nanoscale and Quantum Science and Engineering Fellow at the Stanford Department of Applied Physics. His research interests focus on aspects of nanophotonics, defects and dopants in semiconductors and quantum science. Outside of the lab and fab, he enjoys learning about business and entrepreneurship and developing his abstract art gallery (“The Art Experiment”).

References:

1. P. M. Koenraad and M. E. Flatte, “Single Dopants in Semiconductors”, Nature Materials 10, 91-100 (2011).

2. H. J. Kimble, “The Quantum Internet”, Nature 453, 1023-1030 (2008).

3. E. Waks et al., “Quantum Cryptography with a Photon Turnstile”, Nature 420, 762 (2002).

4. T. M. Babinec et al., “A Diamond Nanowire Single Photon Source”, Nature Nanotechnology 5, 195-199 (2010).

5. J. T. Choy*, B. J. M. Hausmann*, T. M. Babinec* and I. Bulu* et al., “Enhanced Single-Photon Emission from a Diamond-Silver Aperture”, Nature Photonics 5, 738-743 (2011).

6. M. Radulaski and T. M. Babinec et al., “Photonic Crystal Cavities in Cubic Polytype Silicon Carbide Films” Optics Express 21, 32623-32629 (2013).

For abstracts and paper 6, please see

1. http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/v10/n2/full/nmat2940.html

2. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v453/n7198/full/nature07127.html

3. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v420/n6917/abs/420762a.html

4. http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/v5/n3/abs/nnano.2010.6.html

5. http://www.nature.com/nphoton/journal/v5/n12/abs/nphoton.2011.249.html

6. http://www.opticsinfobase.org/oe/abstract.cfm?uri=oe-21-26-32623