Single photon sources are fundamental for applications in quantum computing, secure communication, and sensing, as they enable the generation of individual photons and ensure strict control over photon number statistics. However, current single photon sources can be limited by a lack of robustness, difficulty of integration into existing optical or electronic devices, and high cost. In this study, we present the use of off-the-shelf \ch{C60} fullerene molecules embedded in polystyrene as room-temperature reliable single-photon emitters. As our results demonstrate, these molecules exhibit on-demand single-photon emission, with short fluorescence lifetimes and, consequently, high emission rates. The wide availability and ease of preparation and manipulation of fullerenes as single photon sources can pave the way for the development of practical, economic and scalable quantum photonic technologies.
@article{arxiv.2508.17824,
title = {C60 fullerene as an on-demand single photon source at room temperature},
author = {Raul Lahoz Sanz and Lidia Lozano Martín and Adrià Brú i Cortés and Sergi Hernández and Martí Duocastella and José M. Gómez-Cama and Bruno Juliá-Díaz},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.17824},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
Authors' version of the article submitted to Nano Letters