Coupling a Single Molecule to an Interrupted Nanophotonic Waveguide

Single organic molecules have recently seen increased interest for use as single photon sources [1] . They emit photons with high efficiency and at favourable wavelengths for coupling to other quantum systems. While the excitation of molecules and their subsequent radiative emission is efficient [2] , the generated photons can be difficult to efficiently collect. There is therefore a large amount of ongoing work on coupling organic molecules to nanophotonic structures to modify their emission. Evanescent coupling to nanophotonic [3] , [4] and hybrid plasmonic [5] waveguides has shown promise but has limitations; the molecules must be very close to the waveguide to be in the evanescent field of the guided mode which can cause the molecules to become unstable. Here I will present our recent work on coupling organic molecules to interrupted waveguides using on chip micro-capillaries [6].