Slot-waveguide cavities for optical quantum information applications

To take existing quantum optical experiments and devices into more practical regimes requires the construction of robust, solid-state implementations. In particular, to observe the strong-coupling regime of atom-photon interactions requires very small cavities and large quality factors. Here we show that the slot-waveguide geometry recently introduced for photonic applications is also promising for quantum optical applications in the visible regime. We study diamond- and GaP-based slot-waveguide cavities (SWCs) compatible with diamond colour centres e. g. nitrogen-vacancy (NV) defect. We show that one can achieve increased single-photon Rabi frequencies of order O(10(11))rad s(-1) in ultra-small cavity modal volumes, nearly 2 orders of magnitude smaller than previously studied diamond- based photonic crystal cavities. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America