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Title: Purcell-enhanced quantum yield from carbon nanotube excitons coupled to plasmonic nanocavities

Journal Article · · Nature Communications

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are promising absorbers and emitters to enable novel photonic applications and devices but are also known to suffer from low optical quantum yields. Here we demonstrate SWCNT excitons coupled to plasmonic nanocavity arrays reaching deeply into the Purcell regime with Purcell factors (FP) up to FP = 180 (average FP = 57), Purcell-enhanced quantum yields of 62% (average 42%), and a photon emission rate of 15 MHz into the first lens. The cavity coupling is quasi-deterministic since the photophysical properties of every SWCNT are enhanced by at least one order of magnitude. Furthermore, the measured ultra-narrow exciton linewidth (18 ueV) reaches the radiative lifetime limit, which is promising towards generation of transform-limited single photons. Furthermore, to demonstrate utility beyond quantum light sources we show that nanocavity-coupled SWCNTs perform as single-molecule thermometers detecting plasmonically induced heat at cryogenic temperatures in a unique interplay of excitons, phonons, and plasmons at the nanoscale.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1409304
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5900-68251
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Vol. 8, Issue 1; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 59 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (17)

New Light on Molecule–Nanotube Hybrids journal September 2019
Brightening and Guiding Single‐Photon Emission by Plasmonic Waveguide–Slit Structures on a Metallic Substrate journal September 2019
Diamond as a Platform for Integrated Quantum Photonics journal October 2018
Design of Aluminum Bowtie Nanoantenna Array with Geometrical Control to Tune LSPR from UV to Near-IR for Optical Sensing journal November 2019
Carbon nanotubes as emerging quantum-light sources journal June 2018
Deterministic coupling of site-controlled quantum emitters in monolayer WSe2 to plasmonic nanocavities journal October 2018
Remarkable long-term stability of nanoconfined metal–halide perovskite crystals against degradation and polymorph transitions journal January 2018
Suppression of exciton dephasing in sidewall-functionalized carbon nanotubes embedded into metallo-dielectric antennas journal January 2018
Polymer spacer tunable Purcell-enhanced spontaneous emission in perovskite quantum dots coupled to plasmonic nanowire networks journal January 2019
Intrinsic limits of defect-state photoluminescence dynamics in functionalized carbon nanotubes journal January 2019
Controlling photon antibunching from 1D emitters using optical antennas journal January 2019
Interband transitions in narrow-gap carbon nanotubes and graphene nanoribbons journal April 2019
Single photon emission in WSe 2 up 160 K by quantum yield control journal May 2019
High Efficiency Dark-to-Bright Exciton Conversion in Carbon Nanotubes journal December 2019
Deterministic coupling of quantum emitters in WSe 2 monolayers to plasmonic nanocavities journal January 2018
High efficiency dark-to-bright exciton conversion in carbon nanotubes text January 2019
Photon Correlation Spectroscopy of Luminescent Quantum Defects in Carbon Nanotubes journal September 2019