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Single-photon nonlinearity at room temperature

Nature volume 597, pages 493–497 (2021)Cite this article

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A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 02 December 2021

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Abstract

The recent progress in nanotechnology1,2 and single-molecule spectroscopy3,4,5 paves the way for emergent cost-effective organic quantum optical technologies with potential applications in useful devices operating at ambient conditions. We harness a π-conjugated ladder-type polymer strongly coupled to a microcavity forming hybrid light–matter states, so-called exciton-polaritons, to create exciton-polariton condensates with quantum fluid properties. Obeying Bose statistics, exciton-polaritons exhibit an extreme nonlinearity when undergoing bosonic stimulation6, which we have managed to trigger at the single-photon level, thereby providing an efficient way for all-optical ultrafast control over the macroscopic condensate wavefunction. Here, we utilize stable excitons dressed with high-energy molecular vibrations, allowing for single-photon nonlinear operation at ambient conditions. This opens new horizons for practical implementations like sub-picosecond switching, amplification and all-optical logic at the fundamental quantum limit.

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Fig. 1: The principle of the extreme nonlinearity in organics.
Fig. 2: Attojoule polariton switch.
Fig. 3: Polariton switching contrast towards the single-photon level.
Fig. 4: Single-photon switching for single-shot condensate realizations.

Data availability

All data supporting this study are openly available from the University of Southampton repository at https://doi.org/10.5258/SOTON/D1374.

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Acknowledgements

Authors acknowledge A. Putintsev for technical support. This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (RSF) grant no. 20-72-10145 and the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council grant EP/M025330/1 on Hybrid Polaritonics. E.S.A. and V.Yu.Sh. thank the Foundation for the Advancement of Theoretical Physics and Mathematics Basis. Yu.E.L. acknowledges Basic Research Program at the National Research University HSE, D.U., F.S. and T.S. acknowledge support by QuantERA project RouTe (SNSF grant no. 20QT21 175389). P.G.L, D.U., T.S. and R.F.M. acknowledge support by European H2020-FETOPEN project POLLOC (Grant No. 899141).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Photonics and Quantum Materials, Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, Russia

    Anton V. Zasedatelev, Anton V. Baranikov, Denis Sannikov, Vladislav Yu. Shishkov, Evgeny S. Andrianov, Yurii E. Lozovik & Pavlos G. Lagoudakis

  2. Laboratories for Hybrid Photonics, Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, Russia

    Anton V. Zasedatelev, Anton V. Baranikov, Denis Sannikov, Vladislav Yu. Shishkov, Evgeny S. Andrianov, Yurii E. Lozovik & Pavlos G. Lagoudakis

  3. IBM Research Europe - Zurich, Rüschlikon, Switzerland

    Darius Urbonas, Fabio Scafirimuto, Thilo Stöferle & Rainer F. Mahrt

  4. Dukhov Research Institute of Automatics (VNIIA), Moscow, Russia

    Vladislav Yu. Shishkov, Evgeny S. Andrianov & Yurii E. Lozovik

  5. Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudny, Russia

    Vladislav Yu. Shishkov & Evgeny S. Andrianov

  6. Institute for Spectroscopy RAS, Troitsk, Russia

    Yurii E. Lozovik

  7. Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia

    Yurii E. Lozovik

  8. Macromolecular Chemistry Group and Institute for Polymer Technology, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany

    Ullrich Scherf

  9. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

    Pavlos G. Lagoudakis

Authors
  1. Anton V. Zasedatelev
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Contributions

A.V.Z., A.V.B. and D.S. performed the experiments and analysed the data. D.U., F.S., T.S. and R.F.M. contributed to the design and fabrication of the organic microcavity. U.S. synthesized the organic material. V.Yu.Sh., E.S.A. and Yu.E.L. developed microscopic theory and carried out numerical simulations. A.V.Z. and P.G.L. designed and led the research. The manuscript was written through contributions from all authors. All authors have given approval to the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Anton V. Zasedatelev or Pavlos G. Lagoudakis.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Sections 1–7, including text and data, Supplementary Figs. 1–22, Table 1 and references.

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Zasedatelev, A.V., Baranikov, A.V., Sannikov, D. et al. Single-photon nonlinearity at room temperature. Nature 597, 493–497 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03866-9

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