UWSpace is currently experiencing technical difficulties resulting from its recent migration to a new version of its software. These technical issues are not affecting the submission and browse features of the site. UWaterloo community members may continue submitting items to UWSpace. We apologize for the inconvenience, and are actively working to resolve these technical issues.
 

Constructing an External Cavity Diode Laser for the Probing of Rydberg Excitons in Cu2O

Thumbnail Image

Files

Gross_Aaron.pdf (7.64 MB)

Date

2021-10-05

Authors

Gross, Aaron

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

University of Waterloo

Abstract

Cuprous oxide (Cu2O) is a direct bandgap semiconductor that presents a promising platform for the implementation of a solid state quantum simulator. This promise is in part due to the presence of excitons in the material which have the potential to become excited to Rydberg states, which are robust even in the presence of liquid nitrogen temperature thermal environments. The properties of the Rydberg excitons in Cu2O can be studied by the proxy of a series of P-exciton resonance peaks. For the study of peaks corresponding to principle quantum number n > 12 in the yellow P-series, high resolution spectroscopy methods are required due to the n^(-3) scaling of the width of each resonant peak. However, a tunable narrow linewidth light source, such as an external cavity diode laser, can be used to resolve these states by scanning the wavelength of the laser and measuring its transmission through a sample. Such a laser source can also be used in further experiments to probe and manipulate the excitonic state of the material, by for example inducing a Rydberg blockade. A narrow line-width tunable laser system capable of generating the required wavelengths of light via cavity enhanced second harmonic generation to scan the yellow P-exciton spectrum is constructed, and a high resolution transmission scan is performed. The results of the scan show close agreement with previously and concurrently obtained white light transmission spectroscopy results. This close agreement is somewhat corroborated by further qualitative analysis performed by fitting an asymmetric Lorentzian function to visible exciton resonance spectral features, and comparing the extracted values of the function parameters between the white light and laser light data.

Description

Keywords

Cuprous Oxide, Rydberg Excitons, External Cavity Diode Laser, Solid State Quantum Information Processing

LC Keywords

Cuprous oxide, Rydberg states, Lasers, Quantum computing

Citation

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10012/17624

Collections

Theses
Electrical and Computer Engineering