Correlated spontaneous emission of fluorescent emitters mediated by   single plasmons
  Manipulating the spontaneous emission of a fluorescent emitter can be achieved by placing the emitter in a nanostructured environment. A privileged spot is occupied by plasmonic structures that provide a strong confinement of the electromagnetic field, which results in an enhancement of the emitter-environment interaction. While plasmonic nanostructures have been widely exploited to control the emission properties of single photon emitters, performing the coupling between quantum emitters with plasmons poses a huge challenge. In this Letter we report on a first crucial step towards this goal by the observation of correlated emission between a single CdSe/CdS/ZnS quantum dot exhibiting single photon statistics and a fluorescent nanobead located micrometers apart. This is accomplished by coupling both emitters to a silver nanowire. Single-plasmons are created on the latter from the quantum dot, and transfer energy to excite in turn the fluorescent nanobead. 
Dorian Bouchet, Emmanuel Lhuillier, Sandrine Ithurria, Angelo   Gulinatti, Ivan Rech, R\'emi Carminati, Yannick De Wilde, Va...
physics.optics quant-ph