Electric and optical manipulation of 2D excitons for room temperature polariton blockade and valley qubits

Quantum technologies are being harnessed to deliver functionalities and properties otherwise unattainable within the confines of classical physics. For example, quantum communication and information are increasingly reliant on light beams with strongly non-classical properties for the exchange of quantum-protected information. However, the lack of interaction between photons limits their use for processing tasks. To this end, the hybridization of the light quanta to material excitations in a solid-state quantum element may offer an elegant way forward to implement the interaction between quantum bits. Presently a number of quantum platforms analogous to artificial atoms have been successfully used to generate single light quanta, yet the mismatch between the photon wavelength and the physical size of these systems hinders their integration in optical cavities which would greatly enhance their performance through the confinement of photons. The recent discovery of ambient-stable and electric field tuneable interlayer excitons in self-assembled homobilayers atomically thin (2D) semiconductors (transition metal dichalcogenides, TMD), offers an unprecedented opportunity to pioneer room temperature hybrid photon/matter quantum platforms in the strongly correlated regime in optical cavities. This ambitious quest is the focus of our interdisciplinary proposal which aims to explore a new class of quantum two-level systems (qubits). The envisioned breakthrough in the room temperature operation will be secured by exploiting polariton blockade down to the quantum level, i.e. single-polariton, in layered TMDs. The synergic interaction of leading experimentalists (Prof Russo and Prof Lagoudakis) and theorists (Prof Portnoi and Dr Kyriienko) with complementary core expertise (photonics, 2D material and quantum opto-electronics) and their academic (University of Lecce) and industrial project partners (IBM and WaveOptics) will be the trampoline for launching this ambitious science discovery into ground-breaking quantum systems.