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Light detection nears its quantum limit

Organic molecules are increasingly crucial in quantum-optics technologies. An experiment shows how the strong coupling between confined organic molecules and light can improve photon detection at room temperature.
  1. Sebastian Klembt

    1. Sebastian Klembt is at the Chair for Applied Physics, Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg, 97074 Würzburg, Germany.

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Experiments in quantum optics aim to explain the intrinsic quantum properties of light. The past few decades have seen substantial improvements in both theory and experiment to understand, control and manipulate quantum states of light. Innovative nanotechnological techniques could enable a new generation of all-optical devices, such as switches and amplifiers, that operate at the fundamental quantum limit. At this limit, quantum optics have helped to launch the field of quantum technologies, in which quantum states of light lie at the core of transformative technological applications. Writing in Nature, Zasedatelev et al.1 report an innovative way to use phenomena called optical nonlinearities in organic microcavities (light-trapping structures) that allows light detection at the single-photon level in ambient conditions.

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Nature 597, 483-484 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02489-4

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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