Dynamic Emission Characteristics of Single-Photons and Photon Pairs from Color Centers Tuned by Thermally Induced Strain Fields

Photonic quantum networks frequently demand a consistent and reliable source for generating single photons and entangled photon pairs, which function as quintessential encoders of quantum information. However, many experiments demonstrating quantum algorithms using photons have necessarily been performed at cryogenic temperatures (milli to a few Kelvin), in order to mitigate the adverse effects of temperature dephasing. Encouraged by the relatively long lifetimes of group-N color centers, we show that subdiffracted heating produced by a near-field plasmonic transducer can control the resonant behavior of individual quantum emitters and, consequently, their emission. Our theoretical analysis establishes the ability to control antibunching and superbunching effects at elevated temperatures via highly manipulable, thermally-induced strain fields. Furthermore, our work raises encouraging prospects for the application of color centers in on-chip quantum photonics, while elevating technologies for solid-state quantum information processing towards ever higher temperatures.