Highly-excited Rydberg excitons in synthetic thin-film cuprous oxide
Abstract
Cuprous oxide (Cu2O) has recently emerged as a promising material in solid-state quantum technology, specifically for its excitonic Rydberg states characterized by large principal quantum numbers (n). The significant wavefunction size of these highly-excited states (proportional to n2) enables strong long-range dipole-dipole (proportional to n4) and van der Waals interactions (proportional to n11). Currently, the highest-lying Rydberg states are found in naturally occurring Cu2O. However, for technological applications, the ability to grow high-quality synthetic samples is essential. The fabrication of thin-film Cu2O samples is of particular interest as they hold potential for observing extreme single-photon nonlinearities through the Rydberg blockade. Nevertheless, due to the susceptibility of high-lying states to charged impurities, growing synthetic samples of sufficient quality poses a substantial challenge. This study successfully demonstrates the CMOS-compatible synthesis of a Cu2O thin film on a transparent substrate that showcases Rydberg excitons up to n=8 which is readily suitable for photonic device fabrications. These findings mark a significant advancement towards the realization of scalable and on-chip integrable Rydberg quantum technologies.
Citation
DeLange , J , Barua , K , Paul , A S , Ohadi , H , Zwiller , V , Steinhauer , S & Alaeian , H 2023 , ' Highly-excited Rydberg excitons in synthetic thin-film cuprous oxide ' , Scientific Reports , vol. 13 , 16881 . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-41465-y
Publication
Scientific Reports
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2045-2322Type
Journal article
Description
S.S. acknowledges support from the Swedish Research Council (Starting Grant No. 2019-04821) and from the Göran Gustafsson Foundation. H.A. acknowledges the Purdue University Startup fund, the financial support from the Industry-University Cooperative Research Center Program at the US National Science Foundation under Grant No. 2224960, and the AirForce Office of Scientific Research under award number FA9550-23-1-0489.Collections
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