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 Chin. Phys. B, 2022, Vol. 31(1): 014209    DOI: 10.1088/1674-1056/ac248c
 ELECTROMAGNETISM, OPTICS, ACOUSTICS, HEAT TRANSFER, CLASSICAL MECHANICS, AND FLUID DYNAMICS Prev   Next

# Brightening single-photon emitters by combining an ultrathin metallic antenna and a silicon quasi-BIC antenna

Shangtong Jia(贾尚曈)1, Zhi Li(李智)1,†, and Jianjun Chen(陈建军)1,2,3,4,5,‡
1 State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China;
2 Department of Physics and Applied Optics Beijing Area Major Laboratory, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China;
3 Collaborative Innovation Center of Extreme Optics, Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006, China;
4 Frontiers Science Center for Nano-optoelectronics&Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China;
5 Peking University Yangtze Delta Institute of Optoelectronics, Nantong 226010, China
Abstract  Bright single-photon emitters (SPEs) are fundamental components in many quantum applications. However, it is difficult to simultaneously get large Purcell enhancements and quantum yields in metallic nanostructures because of the huge losses in the metallic nanostructures. Herein, we propose to combine an ultrathin metallic bowtie antenna with a silicon antenna above a metallic substrate to simultaneously get large Purcell enhancements, quantum yields, and collection efficiencies. As a result, the brightness of SPEs in the hybrid nanostructure is greatly increased. Due to the deep subwavelength field confinement (mode size $< 10$~nm) of surface plasmons in the ultrathin metallic film (thickness $<4$~nm), the Purcell enhancement of the metallic bowtie antenna improves by more than 25 times when the metal thickness decreases from 20~nm to 2~nm. In the hybrid nanostructures by combining an ultrathin metallic bowtie antenna with a silicon antenna, the Purcell enhancement (Fp$\,\approx 2.6\times 10^{6})$ in the hybrid nanostructures is 63 times greater than those ($\le 4.1\times 10^{4}$) in the previous metallic and hybrid nanostructures. Because of the reduced ratio of electromagnetic fields in the ultrathin metallic bowtie antenna when the high-index silicon antenna is under the quasi-BIC state, a high quantum yield (QY$\,\approx 0.70$) is obtained. Moreover, the good radiation directivity of the quasi-BIC (bound state in the continuum) mode of the silicon antenna and the reflection of the metallic substrate result in a high collection efficiency (CE$\,\approx 0.71$). Consequently, the overall enhancement factor of brightness of a SPE in the hybrid nanostructure is EF$^{\ast }\approx {\rm Fp}\times {\rm QY}\times {\rm CE}\approx 1.3\times 10^{6}$, which is $5.6\times 10^{2}$ times greater than those (EF$^{\ast }\le 2.2\times 10^{3}$) in the previous metallic and hybrid nanostructures.
Keywords:  single-photon emitters      brightness      hybrid nanostructures      ultrathin metallic antenna      quasi-bound state in the continuum (BIC)
Received:  14 July 2021      Revised:  27 August 2021      Accepted manuscript online:  08 September 2021
 PACS: 42.50.-p (Quantum optics) 42.60.Da (Resonators, cavities, amplifiers, arrays, and rings) 73.20.Mf (Collective excitations (including excitons, polarons, plasmons and other charge-density excitations))
Fund: Project supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant Nos. 2018YFA0704401, 2017YFF0206103, and 2016YFA0203500), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61922002, 91850103, 11674014, 61475005, 11527901, 11525414, and 91850111), and the Beijing Natural Science Foundation, China (Grant No. Z180015).
Corresponding Authors:  Zhi Li, Jianjun Chen     E-mail:  z_li@pku.edu.cn;jjchern@bnu.edu.cn