GENERATION OF A SINGLE GUIDED EXCITATION IN A WAVEGUIDE

摘要

A source for producing and heralding single guided excitations such as photons, surface plasmons, or optical phonons is described. The source may produce guided excitations within a very short time window and with close to 100% probability. The energy of excitations can be easily tuned in this source. The design may intrinsically produce photons guided in an optical fibre or planar waveguide, thus maximizing the collection efficiency. The single photon source excites guided modes in an optical fibre by means of an electron beam. Different configurations are proposed in which detection of the electron after releasing energy and momentum to the photon reveals its creation.