Tunable phononic coupling in excitonic quantum emitters

Quantum emitters with strong and tunable coupling to breathing-mode phonons are observed in bilayer WSe2. The emission of each single photon heralds the creation of a phonon Fock state in the atomic-scale excitonic-optomechanical system. Engineering the coupling between fundamental quantum excitations is at the heart of quantum science and technologies. An outstanding case is the creation of quantum light sources in which coupling between single photons and phonons can be controlled and harnessed to enable quantum information transduction. Here we report the deterministic creation of quantum emitters featuring highly tunable coupling between excitons and phonons. The quantum emitters are formed in strain-induced quantum dots created in homobilayer WSe2. The colocalization of quantum-confined interlayer excitons and terahertz interlayer breathing-mode phonons, which directly modulates the exciton energy, leads to a uniquely strong phonon coupling to single-photon emission, with a Huang-Rhys factor reaching up to 6.3. The single-photon spectrum of interlayer exciton emission features a single-photon purity >83% and multiple phonon replicas, each heralding the creation of a phonon Fock state in the quantum emitter. Due to the vertical dipole moment of the interlayer exciton, the phonon-photon interaction is electrically tunable to be higher than the exciton and phonon decoherence rate, and hence promises to reach the strong-coupling regime. Our result demonstrates a solid-state quantum excitonic-optomechanical system at the atomic interface of the WSe2 bilayer that emits flying photonic qubits coupled with stationary phonons, which could be exploited for quantum transduction and interconnection.

Automated summary

Quantum emitters with strong and tunable coupling to breathing-mode phonons are observed in bilayer WSe2. The emission of each single photon heralds the creation of a phonon Fock state in the atomic-scale excitonic-optomechanical system. Engineering the coupling between fundamental quantum excitations is at the heart of quantum science and technologies.