Ultimate photonics: one photon, one molecule – Talk by Prof. Stephan Götzinger from MPI Erlangen

Physikalisches Kolloquium
Sommersemester 2025

Dienstag 13.05.2025, 16:45 Uhr

Hörsaal MS 3.1, Physikzentrum, Mendelssohnstraße 2/3

Prof. Dr. Stephan Götzinger
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Erlangen, Germany
University of Erlangen–Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany

Ultimate photonics:
one photon, one molecule

Novel concepts aiming at efficient processing of information require a strong and controlled coupling of single photons with single atomic quantum systems. In this talk, I will first give an introduction to the efficient generation of single photons using planar dielectric antennas. These antennas allow us to collect the emission from an arbitrarily oriented single quantum emitter with >99% efficiency. By using a planar metallodielectric antenna applied to an organic molecule, we demonstrate the most regular stream of single photons reported to date. The measured intensity fluctuations were well below the shot-noise limit and amounted to 2.2 dB squeezing.

In the second part of the talk, I will discuss our efforts toward the realization of quantum networks and present experiments where photons and single solid-state emitters strongly interact. A single molecule can amplify a weak laser beam and generate nonlinear effects like three-photon amplification and four-wave mixing. To achieve an even stronger interaction, we have coupled a single molecule to a tunable Fabry-Perot microcavity. The system is operated in the strong coupling regime of cavity quantum electrodynamics, where a strong Purcell factor effectively turns the molecule into a twolevel quantum system. We observe 99% extinction of a laser beam, which means that our molecule in the cavity acts almost as a perfect scatterer of photons.

Coffee and Cookies before the talk

Invited by Prof. Dr. Uta Schlickum, Institut für Angewandte Physik

Tel. 0531 391 8503