In future, individual light packets, also known as light quanta or photons, could transmit data in an encoded and practically tap-proof manner. This requires new photon sources that emit individual light quanta on demand in a controlled manner. A team led by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) has presented a suitable production technique for the first time using silicon nanopillars as an example: a wet chemical etching technique followed by ion bombardment.
In contrast to conventional methods, this metal-assisted chemical etching (MacEtch) does not cause any radiation damage from the highly reactive ions used to carve photonic structures out of the silicon. The finished nanopillars are then bombarded with carbon ions to create photon sources in the pillars. The new etching technique can also be used to precisely control the size, spacing and surface density of the nanopillars.
DOI: 10.1063/5.0094715
