arXiv subjects

Qing Dai

Publications and source records attributed to Qing Dai.

26 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Plasmonic-based gas sensing with graphene nanoribbons

The main challenge to exploiting plasmons for gas vibrational mode sensing is the extremely weak infrared absorption of gas species. In this work, we explore the possibility of trapping free gas molecules via surface adsorption, optical, or electrostatic fields to enhance gas-plasmon interactions and to increase plasmon sensing ability. We discuss the relative strengths of these trapping forces and found gas adsorption in a typical nanoribbon array plasmonic setup produces measurable dips in optical extinction of magnitude 0.1 % for gas concentration of about parts per thousand level.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

Towards optimal single-photon sources from polarized microcavities

An optimal single-photon source should deterministically deliver one and only one photon at a time, with no trade-off between the source's efficiency and the photon indistinguishability. However, all reported solid-state sources of indistinguishable single photons had to rely on polarization filtering which reduced the efficiency by 50%, which fundamentally limited the scaling of photonic quantum technologies. Here, we overcome this final long-standing challenge by coherently driving quantum dots deterministically coupled to polarization-selective Purcell microcavities--two examples are narrowband, elliptical micropillars and broadband, elliptical Bragg gratings. A polarization-orthogonal excitation-collection scheme is designed to minimize the polarization-filtering loss under resonant excitation. We demonstrate a polarized single-photon efficiency of 0.60+/-0.02 (0.56+/-0.02), a single-photon purity of 0.975+/-0.005 (0.991+/-0.003), and an indistinguishability of 0.975+/-0.006 (0.951+/-0.005) for the micropillar (Bragg grating) device. Our work provides promising solutions for truly optimal single-photon sources combining near-unity indistinguishability and near-unity system efficiency simultaneously.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

On-demand semiconductor source of entangled photons which simultaneously has high fidelity, efficiency, and indistinguishability

An outstanding goal in quantum optics and scalable photonic quantum technology is to develop a source that each time emits one and only one entangled photon pair with simultaneously high entanglement fidelity, extraction efficiency, and photon indistinguishability. By coherent two-photon excitation of a single InGaAs quantum dot coupled to a circular Bragg grating bullseye cavity with broadband high Purcell factor up to 11.3, we generate entangled photon pairs with a state fidelity of 0.90(1), pair generation rate of 0.59(1), pair extraction efficiency of 0.62(6), and photon indistinguishability of 0.90(1) simultaneously. Our work will open up many applications in high-efficiency multi-photon experiments and solid-state quantum repeaters.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

Study of electron emission from 1D nanomaterials under super high field

Photoemission driven by a strong electric field of near-infrared or visible light, referred to as strong-field photoemission, produces attosecond electron pulses that are synchronized to the waveform of the incident light, and this principle lies at the heart of current attosecond technologies. However, full access to strong-field photoemission regimes at near-infrared wavelengths based on solid-state materials is restricted by space-charge screening and material damage at high optical-field strengths, which significantly hampers the realization of predicted attosecond technologies, such as ultra-sensitive optical phase modulation. Here, we demonstrate a new type of strong-field photoemission behaviour with extreme nonlinearity -- photoemission current scales follow a 40th power law of the optical-field strength, making use of sub-nanometric carbon nanotubes and 800 nm pulses. As a result, the total photoemission current depends on the carrier-envelope phase with a greatly improved photoemission current modulation depth of up to 100%, which has not previously been achieved. Time-dependent density functional calculations reveal the completely new behaviour of the optical-field induced tunnelling emission process directly from the valence band of the carbon nanotubes, which is an indication of full access to a strong-field photoemission regime. Furthermore, the nonlinear dynamics are observed to be tunable by changing the binding energy of the valence-band-maximum, as confirmed by Simpleman model calculations. We believe that such extreme nonlinear photoemission from nanotips offers a new means of producing extreme temporal-spatial resolved electron pulses. These results additionally provide a new design philosophy for attosecond electronics and optics by making use of tunable band structures in nanomaterials.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2017

Electrostatically tunable adhesion in a high speed sliding interface

Contact hysteresis between sliding interfaces is a widely observed phenomenon from macro- to nano- scale sliding interfaces. Most of such studies are done using an atomic force microscope (AFM) where the sliding speed is a few μm/s. Here, we present a unique study on stiction between the head-disk interface of commercially available hard disk drives, wherein vertical clearance between the head and the disk is of the same order as in various AFM based fundamental studies, but with a sliding speed that is nearly six orders of magnitude higher. We demonstrate that although the electrostatic force (DC or AC voltage) is an attractive force, the AC voltage induced out-of-plane oscillation of the head with respect to disk is able to suppress completely the contact hysteresis.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2017

Ultrafast field-driven monochromatic photoemission from carbon nanotubes

Ultrafast electron pulses, combined with laser-pump and electron-probe technologies, allow for various forms of ultrafast microscopy and spectroscopy to elucidate otherwise challenging to observe physical and chemical transitions. However, the pursuit of simultaneous ultimate spatial and temporal resolution has been largely subdued by the low monochromaticity of the electron pulses and their poor phase synchronization to the optical excitation pulses. State-of-the-art photon-driven sources have good monochromaticity but poor phase synchronization. In contrast, field-driven photoemission has much higher light phase synchronization, due to the intrinsic sub-cycle emission dynamics, but poor monochromaticity. Such sources suffer from larger electron energy spreads (3 - 100 eV) attributed to the relatively low field enhancement of the conventional metal tips which necessitates long pump wavelengths (> 800 nm) in order to gain sufficient ponderomotive potential to access the field-driven regime. In this work, field-driven photoemission from ~1 nm radius carbon nanotubes excited by a femtosecond laser at a short wavelength of 410 nm has been realized. The energy spread of field-driven electrons is effectively compressed to 0.25 eV outperforming all conventional ultrafast electron sources. Our new nanotube-based ultrafast electron source opens exciting prospects for attosecond imaging and emerging light-wave electronics.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2016

Far-field nanoscale infrared spectroscopy of vibrational fingerprints of molecules with graphene plasmons

Infrared spectroscopy, especially for molecular vibrations in the fingerprint region between 600 and 1500 cm-1, is a powerful characterization method for bulk materials. However, molecular fingerprinting at the nanoscale level still remains a significant challenge, due to weak light-matter interaction between micron-wavelengthed infrared light and nano-sized molecules. Here, we demonstrate molecular fingerprinting at the nanoscale level using our specially designed graphene plasmonic structure on CaF2 nanofilm. This structure not only avoids the plasmon-phonon hybridization, but also provides in situ electrically-tunable graphene plasmon covering the entire infrared fingerprint region, which was previously unattainable. In addition, undisturbed and highly-confined graphene plasmon offers simultaneous detection of in-plane and out-of-plane vibrational modes with ultrahigh detection sensitivity down to the sub-monolayer level, significantly pushing the current detection limit of far-field mid-infrared spectroscopy. Our results provide a platform, fulfilling the long-awaited expectation of high sensitivity and selectivity far-field fingerprint detection of nano-scale molecules for numerous applications.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2015

Ultralong Lifetime Plasmons on Picosecond Time Scale Enabled by Hybrid Plasmon-Phonon Polaritons

Graphene plasmonics is of great interest for compact optical devices working in broad frequency domains with ultrahigh speed and very low energy consumption. However, graphene plasmons damp out quickly on most substrates mainly due to scattering loss from substrate surface phonons and impurities. Here we discover a new hybridized plasmon-phonon polariton mode in graphene/h-BN van der Waals heterostructures, which enables ultralong hybrid plasmon lifetime up to 1.6 picosecond, the longest plasmon lifetime ever demonstrated. Such remarkably long lifetime arises from the coupling of long-lifetime h-BN transverse optical phonon with graphene plasmons, which uniquely exists in monolayer heterostructures. Our findings and understanding of this unexploited hybrid mode offer a novel approach to tune the plasmon behaviours in the frequency, time and space domains. This can potentially introduce a new paradigm to generate highly-confined plasmons with ultra-long lifetime for various applications, such as deep-subwavelength metamaterials, ultra-low-loss waveguides, and ultrafast optical switches.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗