@article{ChuBrennerChenetal.2014,
  author    = {Chu, X. -L. and Brenner, Thomas J. K. and Chen, X. -W. and Ghosh, Y. and Hollingsworth, J. A. and Sandoghdar, Vahid and Goetzinger, S.},
  title     = {Experimental realization of an optical antenna designed for collecting 99\% of photons from a quantum emitter},
  series = {Optica},
  volume    = {1},
  journal   = {Optica},
  number    = {4},
  publisher = {Optical Society of America},
  address   = {Washington},
  issn      = {2334-2536},
  doi       = {10.1364/OPTICA.1.000203},
  pages     = {203 -- 208},
  year      = {2014},
  abstract  = {A light source that emits single photons at well-defined times and into a well-defined mode would be a decisive asset for quantum information processing, quantum metrology, and sub-shot-noise detection of absorption. One of the central challenges in the realization of such a deterministic device based on a single quantum emitter concerns the collection of the photons, which are radiated into a 4 pi solid angle. Here, we present the fabrication and characterization of an optical antenna designed to convert the dipolar radiation of an arbitrarily oriented quantum emitter to a directional beam with more than 99\% efficiency. Our approach is extremely versatile and can be used for more efficient detection of nanoscopic emitters ranging from semiconductor quantum dots to dye molecules, color centers, or rare-earth ions in various environments. Having addressed the issue of collection efficiency, we also discuss the photophysical limitations of the existing quantum emitters for the realization of a deterministic single-photon source. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America},
  language  = {en}
}