A planar dielectric antenna for directional single-photon emission and near-unity collection efficiency

• Main Authors: Lee, K. G, Chen, X. W, Eghlidi, H, Kukura, P, Lettow, R, Renn, A, Sandoghdar, V, Götzinger, S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 20-09-2010
• Subjects: Physics - Quantum Physics
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.1009.3876

Single emitters have been considered as sources of single photons in various
contexts such as cryptography, quantum computation, spectroscopy, and
metrology. The success of these applications will crucially rely on the
efficient directional emission of photons into well-defined modes. To
accomplish a high efficiency, researchers have investigated microcavities at
cryogenic temperatures, photonic nanowires, and near-field coupling to metallic
nano-antennas. However, despite an impressive progress, the existing
realizations substantially fall short of unity collection efficiency. Here we
report on a theoretical and experimental study of a dielectric planar antenna,
which uses a layered structure for tailoring the angular emission of a single
oriented molecule. We demonstrate a collection efficiency of 96% using a
microscope objective at room temperature and obtain record detection rates of
about 50 MHz. Our scheme is wavelength-insensitive and can be readily extended
to other solid-state emitters such as color centers and semiconductor quantum
dots.