Quantum photonics based on metasurfaces

Quantum Photonics Based on Metasurfaces

In a new publication from Opto-Electronic Advances; DOI 10.29026/oea.2021.200092, researchers led by Professor Shuming Wang from Nanjing University, Nanjing, China discuss quantum photonics based on metasurfaces.

 

This paper summarizes recent works on quantum optics based on micro/nano structures. Since its birth, quantum optics has been full of controversies with the locality and reality of classical physics versus the non-locality and uncertainty of quantum physics. Technologies based on new quantum physics will revolutionize human life. To better serve the human society with quantum technologies, it is particularly important to prepare micro/nano optical devices with strong stability, high efficiency and scalability. This not only makes the exploration of quantum physics more convenient and stable, but also introduces new degrees of freedom to enrich the possibilities of quantum technologies.

 

This paper provides a systematic and comprehensive summary of quantum optics based on metasurfaces, including quantum plasmonics, quantum sources, manipulation of quantum states, quantum applications and interactions with quantum emitters. With the development of quantum science and technology, more and more attention will be paid to the application of quantum physics, rather than the breakthrough of quantum mechanisms, so miniaturization is an inevitable trend. It is necessary to compare the advantages and disadvantages of different quantum optical research systems, which can be roughly divided into on-chip quantum optics, bulk optical element quantum optics and quantum optics based on metasurfaces. On-chip quantum optics are the most integrated system among these three categories, but the light field manipulation function of on-chip quantum optics is far less rich than the latter two. Bulk optical element quantum optics satisfy the rich light field manipulation function, but its stability, scalability is much lower than the quantum optics based on metasurfaces, thus it can be seen that metasurfaces has great potential in quantum optics, and metasurfaces is not just an integrated version of optical elements, its abundant light field control function to discover new quantum physics gives new momentum.

For researchers who are about to embark on this field or who are already working in this field, a comprehensive and systematic understanding of the recent development of this emerging field can help them build on this reasonable framework and explore deeper physics based on predecessors.

 

Article reference: Liu J, Shi MQ, Chen Z, Wang SM, Wang ZL et al. Quantum photonics based on metasurface. Opto-Electron Adv 4, 200092 (2021). doi: 10.29026/oea.2021.200092

 

Keywords: metasurfaces; quantum optics; quantum information

 

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The research group is led by Professor Shuming Wang from Nanjing University, and mainly focuses on light field control based on micro/nano structures, which can be divided into two categories: classical optics and quantum optics. In classical optics, the group explores the use of micro/nano structures to control the polarization, orbital angular momentum, wavelength, deflection direction and beam behavior of the light field. Research is focused on how to use metasurfaces to enhance the nonlinear processes such as the second and third harmonic generation, and on this basis, successfully realize the polarization manipulation of harmonic waves. In addition, the group use the principle of phase separation to realize the broadband achromatic metalens, which has never been achieved before. This is a great innovation and breakthrough in principle, and it can be directly applied to the light field camera. In fact, Classical optical designs provide a more flexible and efficient platform to study quantum optics, for example, using the metalens array to prepare high-dimensional multiphoton quantum light source through encoding the metalens with different phase, then four Bell basis quantum states can be directly produced from spontaneous parametric down conversion process, offering a new degree of freedom to control quantum light source. In the group, the classical optics and quantum optics complement each other: classical optics provides a more convenient experimental platform for quantum optics, while quantum optics demands more novel and important scene for classical optics.

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