Covalent Quantum Defects of Carbon Nanotubes: A New Material for Quantum Information Science

sp³ defects of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), often referred to “organic color centers”,¹ are rapidly emerging as a new material system for chemistry, physics, materials science, engineering and quantum technologies. These defects are created via covalent bonding of organic functional groups to the sp² lattice of SWCNTs and display quantum mechanical properties in a way similar to color centers of solid state systems. In this talk, I will provide a brief over view on our recent accomplishments in understanding and controlling quantum optical properties of this new material system. Specifically, I will cover (1) unique molecularly tunable electronic structures of these covalent quantum defects^2,, (2) demonstration of room temperature single photon emission at 1.55 µm telecommunication wavelength with 0.99 single photon purity,^{3, 4} and (3) single defect magneto PL experiment revealing hidden spin sensitive electronic fine structure states.
¹ Nat. Photon 11, 535 2017; ²Nat. Chem. 10, 1089 2018; ³ Nat. Photon. 11, 577 2017; ⁴ Nat. Mater. 17, 663 2018;