Scientists have managed to fit all the components of a single photon source into a single integrated circuit. This was reported by TASS with reference to Leibniz University Hannover.
Generators that can emit light in the form of individual photons are essential for many experiments in fundamental physics and for the operation of many quantum technologies. They are especially needed to build quantum computers, encoders, and communication systems. In recent years, engineers have been able to manufacture such devices, but they need an external source of laser radiation, characterized by large dimensions. Therefore, single photon generators could not be made part of microchips and used, for example, in quantum memory cells.
Michael Kus and his colleagues succeeded in creating such a chip using a miniature laser based on indium phosphide. This material has been tried before, but the resulting lasers were extremely inefficient. The authors were able to solve this problem by coupling an indium phosphide laser to a silicon nitride resonator filter that interferes with the “escape” of light particles and filters out photons with insufficient properties.
The scientists made several devices and made sure that they could indeed generate a single stream of light particles, while at the same time the chips spent a minimal amount of energy for it. These prototypes were used by Professor Kus and colleagues to build photonic qubits and qubits, multilevel quantum memory cells. Subsequent computation with them confirmed the high quality of the new single photon sources.
The authors hope that in the future it will be possible to create a quantum computer from “single-photon” chips based on their technology.
Previously, chemists proposed a method. couple efficiency of solar cells with ultra-thin material.