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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Data availability
All data supporting this study are openly available from the University of Southampton repository at https://doi.org/10.5258/SOTON/D1374.
Change history
02 December 2021
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04113-x
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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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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.
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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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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03866-9