Harnessing the spontaneous emission of incoherent quantum emitters is one of the hallmarks of nano-optics. Yet, an enduring challenge remains—making them emit vector beams, which are complex forms of light associated with fruitful developments in fluorescence imaging, optical trapping, and high-speed telecommunications. Vector beams are characterized by spatially varying polarization states whose construction requires coherence properties that are typically possessed by lasers—but not by photons produced by spontaneous emission. Here, we show a route to weave the spontaneous emission of an ensemble of colloidal quantum dots into vector beams. To this end, we use holographic nanostructures that impart the necessary spatial coherence, polarization, and topological properties to the light originating from the emitters. We focus our demonstration on vector vortex beams, which are chiral vector beams carrying nonzero orbital angular momentum, and argue that our approach can be extended to other forms of vectorial light.

中文翻译：

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矢量涡旋光束的自发发射

利用非相干量子发射器的自发发射是纳米光学的标志之一。然而，仍然存在一个持久的挑战，那就是使它们发出矢量光束，这些矢量光束是与荧光成像，光阱和高速电信领域的丰硕成果相关的复杂形式的光。矢量光束的特征是空间变化的偏振态，其偏振结构需要相干性，而相干性通常是激光所具有的，而自发发射的光子则不具备。在这里，我们展示了一种将胶体量子点的自发发射编织到矢量束中的途径。为此，我们使用全息纳米结构，该全息纳米结构赋予来自发射器的光必要的空间相干性，偏振和拓扑特性。