Experimental realization of an optical antenna designed for collecting 99% of photons from a quantum emitter

A light source that emits single photons at well-defined times and into a well-defined mode would be a decisive asset for quantum information processing, quantum metrology, and sub-shot-noise detection of absorption. One of the central challenges in the realization of such a deterministic device based on a single quantum emitter concerns the collection of the photons, which are radiated into a 4 pi solid angle. Here, we present the fabrication and characterization of an optical antenna designed to convert the dipolar radiation of an arbitrarily oriented quantum emitter to a directional beam with more than 99% efficiency. Our approach is extremely versatile and can be used for more efficient detection of nanoscopic emitters ranging from semiconductor quantum dots to dye molecules, color centers, or rare-earth ions in various environments. Having addressed the issue of collection efficiency, we also discuss the photophysical limitations of the existing quantum emitters for the realization of a deterministic single-photon source. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America