Abstract
Single-photon detectors have been widely studied for decades because of their unique capability to resolve photon numbers, enabling many applications in quantum information technologies. Compared to other types of single-photon detectors, niobium nitride (NbN) superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors are promising candidates and are commercially available today. However, the absorption coefficient of superconducting NbN in the visible range is typically low, resulting in low quantum efficiency and low signal-to-noise ratios. In the present work, we use a novel approach to enhance the visible-light photoresponse in NbN superconducting microwire photon detectors (SMPDs) by integrating them with gap plasmon resonators (GPRs). This talk describes how we observe the plasmonic NbN SMPDs can achieve a 233-fold enhancement in the phonon-electron interaction factor (γ) compared to pristine NbN SMPDs under resonant conditions with illumination at 532 nm. The nonlinear photoresponse in the visible region is attributed to the gap-plasmon-induced heating that breaks the superconducting state to normal. Our results open new opportunities for ultrasensitive single-photon detection for quantum information processing, quantum optics, imaging, and sensing at visible wavelengths. The detailed mechanisms and possible applications will be discussed. Finally, I will discuss emerging plasmonic platforms based on transition metal nitrides and their potential applications[1-6].
References
[1]. Y-H Hsieh, B-W Hsu, K-N Peng, K-W Lee, C W Chu, S-W Chang, H-W Lin*, T-J Yen*, and Y-J Lu*, Perovskite Quantum Dot Lasing in a Gap-Plasmon Nanocavity with Ultralow Threshold, ACS Nano 14, 11670 (2020). (Issue cover)
[2]. Y-J Lu*, T L Shen, K-N Peng, P-J Cheng, S-W Chang, M-Y Lu, C W Chu, T-F Guo, H. Atwater*, Upconversion Plasmonic Lasing from an Organolead Trihalide Perovskite Nanocrystal with Low Threshold. ACS Photonics 8,335–342 (2021).
[3]. Y-J Lu, R. Sokhoyan, W-H Cheng, G. Kafaie Shirmanesh, A. Davoyan, R. A. Pala, K. Thyagarajan, and H. A. Atwater*, Dynamically Controlled Purcell Enhancement of Visible Spontaneous Emission in a Gated Plasmonic Heterostructure, Nature Communications 8, 1631 (2017).
[4]. H-Y Lan, Y-H Hsieh, Z-Y Chiao, D. Jariwala, M-H Shih, T-J Yen, O. Hess, and Y-J Lu*, Gate-Tunable Plasmon-Enhanced Photodetection in a Monolayer MoS2 Phototransistor with Ultrahigh Photoresponsivity. Nano Lett. 21, 3083 (2021).
[5]. M-J Yu, C-L Chang, H-Y Lan, Z-Y Chiao, Y-C Chen, H W H. Lee, Y-C Chang, S-W Chang, T. Tanaka, V. Tung, H-H Chou*, and Y-J Lu*, Plasmon-Enhanced Solar-Driven Hydrogen Evolution Using Titanium Nitride Metasurface Broadband Absorbers. ACS Photonics 8, 3125–3132 (2021).
[6] Z-Y Chiao, Y-C Chen, J-W Chen, Y-C Chu, J-W Yang, T-Y Peng, W-R Syong, H W H. Lee, S-W Chu, and Y-J Lu*, Full-Color Generation Enabled by Refractory Plasmonic Crystals. Nanophotonics 11, 2891-2899 (2022)
Short Bio
Dr. Yu-Jung Lu is an Associate Research Fellow in the Research Center for Applied Sciences at Academia Sinica and an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at National Taiwan University. Dr. Lu received her Ph.D. in Physics from the National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan, in 2013. She later held a Postdoctoral position in Prof. Harry Atwater’s research group at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), USA, from 2015 to 2017. Dr. Lu is a renowned materials physicist who specializes in active plasmonics, nanophotonics, and metamaterials. Her research focuses on plasmonic nanodevices that enable the harvesting, generation, and manipulation of light at the nanoscale.
Dr. Lu has made significant contributions to the plasmonics field, including discovering refractory plasmonic materials such as conductive transition metal nitrides and their nanoplasmonic devices. She is an active member of MRS, SPIE, and OPTICA, and serves as a referee for many prestigious journals. She has also chaired, co-chaired, and served as a committee member for international symposiums). In 2021, she was selected as one of the SPIE Women in Optics Planners. In 2023, she was selected as SPIE Senior Members.
Dr. Lu has received several awards from Taiwan, including the 56th Taiwan Ten Outstanding Young Persons (2018), the Career Development Award (2018), and the Youth Optical Engineering Medal of the Taiwan Photonics Society (2020). Her research has been published in high-impact journals, such as Nature Communications, Nature Nanotechnology, Nano Letters, ACS Nano, ACS Photonics, Nano Energy, and Science.