Soft and biological quantum light sources

forthcoming

Quantum optics is an exciting and rapidly growing research field with a huge potential in different applications such as quantum communications, computing, sensing, and imaging. One of the most crucial components of any quantum optical device is a source of non-classical light, called a quantum light source. Currently, these sources are almost exclusively based on solid-state inorganic materials, which limits their properties, such as lack of complex geometries and limited tunability. In the past, I have pioneered the use of liquid crystals and biomaterials to make various photonic devices. Notably, I made a laser inside a live human cell. Since then, this pioneering work has been employed in a large number of applications, including tunable light sources, biological sensing, cell barcoding, and imaging. Soft photonic devices have unparalleled properties compared to their solid-state counterparts, such as extremely large tunability, self-assembly of complex structures that are impossible to make by lithography, biocompatibility and even self-healing. Similarly as with microlasers, I propose to make quantum light sources from soft and biological matter. The unique properties of soft materials have the potential to give an unprecedented twist to the field of quantum optics but have been unexplored until now. I propose to develop sources of photon pairs out of liquid crystals. By selecting the appropriate liquid crystal structure, these sources will generate almost arbitrary polarization quantum states of the photon pairs, including entangled photons. Moreover, the quantum states will also be tunable by an electric field. Further, I propose to use single-photon sources in biological materials for novel applications such as cell barcoding and to make a purely biological single-photon source. The novel quantum light sources developed in the SoftQuanta project could have a significant impact on quantum sensing, imaging, communications, and maybe even quantum computing.