Single-photon detection from gated nanostructures*

Single-photon detection with high efficiency and low dark count rates is of high importance for a wide range of optical measurements. In this work, we describe efforts to directly measure blue photons emanating from graphene and graphene nanoribbons that are gated at ~10 nm scales. Graphene nanostructures and nanoribbons exhibit remarkable nonlinear optical behavior when subjected to intense local electric fields [1,2]. The experimental signatures of these nonlinear processes are detected through interferometric methods [3]. The single-photon detection platform will allow quantification of these signatures by detection of sum-frequency-generated light in the far field.

[1] Sheridan, E. et al. Nano Lett. (2020) doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c01379

[2] Sheridan, E. et al. APL Materials 9, 071101 (2021)

[3] L. Chen, et al., Light: Science & Appl. 8, 24 (2019).