Hannover 2010 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Downloads | Help

Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 8: Quantum Effects: Interference and Correlations II / Entanglement and Decoherence I

Q 8.1: Group Report

Monday, March 8, 2010, 16:30–17:00, A 310

Quantum optics with single molecules: photon-photon interactions — •Stephan Goetzinger, Jaesuk Hwang, Robert Lettow, Martin Pototschnig, Alois Renn, Yves Rezus, Gert Zumofen, and Vahid Sandoghdar — Laboratory of Physical Chemistry and optETH, ETH Zurich, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland

In this talk we shall review our quantum optical experiments with single molecules at cryogenic temperatures with emphasis on interacting photons. In the first experiment, we show that photons can be efficiently coupled to a single emitter without the need for a microresonator [1], resulting in a strong extinction of a weak laser beam. We achieved stimulated emission from a single molecule and demonstrated that it can act as an optical transistor [2]. In a further experiment we exploited the fact that single molecules serve as independent frequency-tunable single photon sources with a flux of more than one million photons per second [3]. By tuning the frequencies and spectral widths of two individual remote molecules, we explored various aspects of two-photon interference [4].

[1] G. Wrigge et. al., Nature Physics 4, 60 (2008). [2] J. Hwang et al., Nature 460, 76 (2009). [3] R. Lettow et al., Optics Express 15, 15842 (2007). [4] R. Lettow et al., arXiv:0911.3031v1 [quant-ph], (2009).