Project Overview

The project ARTEMIS, entitled “Molecular materials for on-chip integrated quantum light sources“, proposes fundamental research toward the development of integrable single and entangled photon sources based on metallorganic molecular compounds. The project is motivated by the urgent need for novel quantum sources with unprecedented versatility, flexibility, and performance. This goal will be pursued by resorting to molecular materials, based on transition metal and/or lanthanide ions with organic moieties, characterized by tunable linear downshifted emission as well as non-linear optical properties enabling on-demand single photons and entangled photon pairs/triplets generation. Such flexible and processable metallorganic materials will replace traditional quantum photon sources based on bulk inorganic crystals allowing for the direct integration of wavelength-tunable quantum sources on current devices. The molecular quantum sources will be combined with suitable designed plasmonic supernanostructured cavities to achieve the highest optical enhancement. The proposed progress will be gained through cutting-edge synthesis techniques and advanced characterization methods integrated with nano-photonics engineering strategies. The devices and methods developed in this project will lead to photon sources with competitive performance in terms of coherence, efficiency, scalability, and cost. This will lead to a fundamental breakthrough in the development of quantum technologies, paving the way to bring them out of the laboratory into the real world.
The achievement of the high-risk/high-gain project goal requires an intensive research activity in different scientific/technological areas, achievable thanks to a multidisciplinary consortium, and the right balance among the competitiveness of the expected results, the degree of technological innovation, and future development. The outcomes and targets are expected to lead European research at the forefront of the second quantum revolution, thus contributing to Europe’s position as a global leader in the field.