Subradiant entanglement in plasmonic nanocavities

Abstract

Plasmonic nanocavities are known for their extreme field enhancement and sub-wavelength light confinement in gaps of just a few nanometers. Pairing this with the ability to host quantum emitters, they form highly promising platforms to control or engineer quantum states at room temperature. Here, we use the lossy nature of plasmonic nanocavities to form sub-radiant entangled states between two or more quantum emitters, that persist for $\sim 100$ times longer than the plasmonic excitation. We develop a theoretical description that directly links quantum variables to experimentally measurable quantities, such as the extinction cross-section, and unlike previous studies includes plasmonic excitations necessary to resonantly form subradiant states. This work paves the way towards engineering quantum entangled states in ambient conditions with plasmonic nanocavities, for potential applications such as rapid quantum memories, quantum communications and sensors.