Abstract
This thesis explores two separate research avenues that both utilise stimulated Brillouin scattering in order to achieve their goal. The first employs a phonon generated in diamond by backwards Brillouin scattering in order to store and retrieve quantum information for use in quantum computing. The second uses the physical hypersonic waves induced by forwards Brillouin scattering in a null coupling fibre taper in order to switch light from one output to another.A number of experiments were completed along both paths, work was first done to find the acoustic phonon lifetime in diamond which sets the lifetime of the quantum memory, however results for this experiment were inconclusive due to limitations regarding the difficulty of executing such an experiment, a figure for the acoustic phonon lifetime in diamond has since been established in the literature. A polarimetry experiment took place on a fibre taper in order to confirm the presence of acoustic modes, which produced good and expected results, however the following experiment that was designed to find the specific frequency of the acoustic mode produced null results, the reason for which are numerous.
A theoretical investigation into both devices’ feasibility was also completed on these systems using a finite-element method. Results from these simulations show that while the potential for a functioning Brillouin-based diamond quantum memory is high as full switching is possible at distances of 6.36cm with gain values of 63.3W−1m−1, the possibility of building a functioning photonic switch with this particular architecture and switching system is unlikely, as taper fabrication parameters needed for a full transfer of power require aspect ratios far higher than what is physically possible when considering reasonable laser systems.
| Date of Award | 26 Jul 2023 |
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| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Peter Mosley (Supervisor) & Joshua Nunn (Supervisor) |
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