A. James Clark School of Engineering
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations.
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Item INTEGRATION OF CLASSICAL/NONCLASSICAL OPTICAL NONLINEARITIES WITH PHOTONIC CIRCUITS(2023) Buyukkaya, Mustafa A; Waks, Edo; Electrical Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Recent developments in nanofabrication have opened opportunities for strong light-matter interactions that can enhance optical nonlinearities, both classical and non-classical, for applications such as optical computing, quantum communication, and quantum computing. However, the challenge lies in integrating these optical nonlinearities efficiently and practically with fiber-based and silicon-based photonic circuits on a large scale and at low power. In this thesis, we aimed to achieve this integration of classical and quantum optical nonlinearities with fiber-based and silicon-based photonic circuits.For classical optical applications, optical bistability is a well-researched nonlinear optical phenomenon that has hysteresis in the output light intensity, resulting from two stable electromagnetic states. This can be utilized in various applications such as optical switches, memories, and differential amplifiers. However, integrating these applications on a large scale requires low-power optical nonlinearity, fast modulation speeds, and photonic designs with small footprints that are compatible with fiber optics or silicon photonic circuits. Thermo-optic devices are an effective means of producing optical bistability through thermally induced refractive index changes caused by optical absorption. The materials used must have high absorption coefficients and strong thermo-optic effects to realize low-power optical bistability. For this purpose, we choose high-density semiconductor quantum dots as the material platform and engineer nanobeam photonic crystal structures that can efficiently be coupled to an optical fiber while achieving low-power thermo-optical bistability. For applications that require non-classical nonlinearities such as quantum communication and quantum computing, single photons are promising carriers of quantum information due to their ability to propagate over long distances in optical fibers with extremely low loss. However, the efficient coupling of single photons to optical fibers is crucial for the successful transmission of quantum information. Semiconductor quantum dots that emit around telecom wavelengths have emerged as a popular choice for single photon sources due to their ability to produce bright and indistinguishable single photons, and travel long distances in fiber optics. Here, we present our advances in integrating telecom wavelength single photons from semiconductor quantum dots to optical fibers to realize efficient fiber-integrated on-demand single photon sources at telecom wavelengths. Finally, using the same methodology, we demonstrate the integration of these quantum dots with CMOS foundry-made silicon photonic circuits. The foundry chip is designed to individually tune quantum dots using the quantum confined stark shift with localized electric fields at different sections of the chip. This feature could potentially enable the tuning of multiple quantum emitters for large-scale integration of single photon sources for on-chip quantum information processing.Item ATOMISTIC EXPLORATION OF DENSELY-GRAFTED POLYELECTROLYTE BRUSHES: EFFECT OF APPLIED ELECTRIC FIELD AND MULTIVALENT SCREENING COUNTERIONS(2022) Pial, Md Turash Haque; Das, Siddhartha; Mechanical Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Polyelectrolyte (PE) or charged polymers are ubiquitous under biological and synthetic conditions, ranging from DNA to advanced technologies. PE chains can be grafted on a surface and they extend into solution to form a "brush"-like configuration if the grafting density is high. PE brushes respond to external stimuli by changing their conformation and chemical details, which make them very attractive for numerous applications. Multivalent counterions (neutralizing PE charges) and external electric fields are known to significantly affect the brush behavior. Obtaining fundamental insights into PE brush’s response to ions and electric filed is of utmost importance for both industrial and academic research. In this dissertation, we use atomistic tools to improve our understanding of the PE brushes grafted on a single surface and two inner walls of a nanochannel under these two stimuli.We start by developing an all-atom molecular dynamics simulation framework to test the behavior of the PE brushes (grafted on a single surface) in the presence of externally applied electric fields. It is discovered that the charge density of PE monomers can have significant influence on their response; a smaller monomer charge density helps the brush to tilts along the electric field, while the PE brush with higher monomer charge density bends and shrinks. We found that counterion condensation to PE chains has a substantial impact in controlling these responses. In the subsequent study we discuss the effect of counterion size and valence in dictating counterion mediated bridging interaction of two or more negative monomers. By examining the solvation behavior, we identify that bridging interactions are not a sole function of the counterion valence. Rather, it depends on the counterion condensation on the PE chain, as well as the size of the counterion solvation shell. We also test the dynamic properties of the counterions and associated bridges. Later, we proceeded to simulate PE brush-grafted nanochannels to explore equilibrium and flow behavior in presence of nanoconfinement. We identify the onset of overscreening: there are a greater number of coions than counterions in the bulk liquid outside the brush layer. This specific ion distribution ensures that the overall electroosmotic flow is along the direction of the coions. Furthermore, for a large electric field, some of the counterions leave the PE brush layer into the bulk, resulting in disappearance of overscreening. If the number of counterions is greater than coions, electroosmotic flow reverses its direction and follows the motion of counterions. Finally, we discover that counterion-monomer interactions control the ion distribution. As a result, a diverse range of electroosmotic flow is found for counterions with different valence and size.Item CONFINED PHOTOTHERMAL HEATING OF NANOPARTICLE DISPLAYED BIOMATERIALS(2021) Hastman, David A; Medintz, Igor L; Aranda-Espinoza, Helim; Bioengineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Controlling the temperature of biological systems has long been utilized as a tool for regulating their subsequent biological activity. Recently, photothermal heating of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) has emerged as an efficient and remote method to heat proximal biological materials. Moreover, this technique has tremendous potential for controlling biological systems at the subcellular level, as specific components within the system can be heated while the larger system remains unaffected. The small size, biocompatiblilty, and optical properties of AuNPs make them attractive nanoscale heat sources for controlling biological systems. While the utility of photothermal heating has significantly advanced through the optimization of AuNP size, shape, and composition, the choice of incident light source utilized has largely been unexplored. One of the more interesting excitation sources is a femtosecond (fs) pulsed laser, as the subsequent temperature increase lasts for only a few nanoseconds and is confined to the nanoscale. However, it is not yet clear how biological materials respond to these short-lived and ultra-confined nanoscale spaciotemporal temperature increases. In this dissertation, we utilize fs laser pulse excitation to locally heat biological materials displayed on the surface of AuNPs in order to understand the corresponding heating profiles and, in turn, interpret how this can be used to modulate biological activity. Due to its unique temperature sensitive hybridization properties, we exploit double-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (dsDNA) as our prototypical biological material and demonstrate precise control over the rate of dsDNA denaturation by controlling the laser pulse radiant exposure, dsDNA melting temperature, bulk solution temperature, and the distance between the dsDNA and AuNP surface. The rate of dsDNA denaturation was well fit by a modified DNA dissociation equation from which a “sensed” temperature value could be obtained. Evaluating this sensed temperature in the context of the theoretical temperature profile revealed that the ultra-high temperatures near the AuNP surface play a significant role in denaturation. Additionally, we evaluate this technique as a potential means to enhance enzyme activity and report that enhancement is governed by the laser repetition rate, pulse width, and the enzyme’s inherent turnover number. Overall, we demonstrate that the confined and nanosecond duration temperature increase achievable around AuNPs with fs laser pulse excitation can be used to precisely control biological function and establish important design considerations for coupling this technique to more complex biological systems.Item ATOMISTIC AND THEORETICAL DESCRIPTION OF LIQUID FLOWS IN POLYELECTROLYTE-BRUSH-GRAFTED NANOCHANNELS(2021) Sachar, Harnoor Singh; Das, Siddhartha; Mechanical Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Polyelectrolyte (PE) chains grafted in close proximity stretch out to form a “brush”-like configuration. Such PE brushes can represent a special class of nanomaterials that are capable of exhibiting stimuli-responsive behavior. They can be manipulated as needed by changing the environmental conditions like pH, solvent quality, salt concentration, temperature, etc. This responsiveness renders them very useful for a plethora of applications such as lubrication, emulsion stabilization, current rectification, nanofluidic energy conversion, drug delivery, oil recovery, etc. Therefore, gaining fundamental insights into PE brush systems is of utmost importance for both industrial as well as academic research. In this dissertation, we make use of theoretical and computational tools to improve our understanding of planar PE brushes and then use this understanding to probe flows in PE brush-grafted nanochannels. We begin our quest by conducting all-atom Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations to probe the microstructure of planar PE brushes with an unprecedented atomistic resolution. This allows us to not only investigate the properties of the PE chains but also the local structure and arrangement of the counterions and water molecules trapped within the brushes. Next, we use our atomistic model to probe the effects of variation in charge density on the microstructure of weak polyionic brushes. Such a variation in the charge density is typically enforced by a change in the surrounding pH and is a characteristic behavior of pH-responsive (annealed) PE brushes. Furthermore, we go on to develop the most exhaustive theoretical model for pH-responsive PE brushes known as the augmented Strong Stretching Theory (SST). Our model is an improvement over the existing state-of-the-art as it considers the effects of the excluded volume interactions and an expanded form of the mass action law. We further improve this model by including several non-Poisson Boltzmann effects, especially relevant at high salt concentrations. This improved model is in excellent agreement with the results of our all-atom MD simulations. Next, we use our augmented SST to model pressure-driven transport in backbone-charged PE brush-grafted nanochannels. Our results are an improvement over previous electrokinetic studies that did not consider a thermodynamically self-consistent description of the brushes. Finally, we conduct all-atom MD simulations to probe the pressure-driven transport of water in PE brush-grafted nanochannels using an all-atom framework. The nanoscale energy conversion characteristics obtained from our simulations are in reasonable agreement with the predictions of our continuum framework and lie within the range of values reported by a prior experimental study.Item Electron Beam Induced Current in Wide Bandgap Semiconductors using Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy(2020) Warecki, Zoey; Cumings, John; Material Science and Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Wide bandgap semiconductors are those with a larger bandgap than silicon; this property allows them to operate at higher voltages, higher driving frequencies, and higher operating temperatures. Gallium nitride (GaN) in particular is attractive for its high critical electric field and thus high breakdown strength allowing for the design of a thinner drift region for a given blocking voltage. It is for these same reasons that GaN is also more radiation resistant than Si, and thus is attractive for satellite or space applications. With the recent commercial availability of free standing GaN substrates, there are many fundamental properties of GaN-on-GaN devices that are still not understood. One of the main characterization techniques used to classify GaN device quality is the measurement of the minority carrier diffusion length via electron beam induced current (EBIC). One of the main limitations of the traditional scanning electron microscopy (SEM) EBIC technique is due to the size of the electron beam/specimen interaction volume at > 5 kV, as well as large collection losses due to carrier recombination at the surface at < 5 kV. This dissertation addresses the previous issues of SEM EBIC with a non-traditional bulk scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) EBIC technique which allows for high resolution measurements of the hole diffusion length in n-GaN/Ni Schottky diodes. A reproducible, non-invasive bulk STEM sample preparation technique for n-GaN/Ni Schottky diodes is developed for the use of collecting bulk STEM EBIC micrographs. Despite the large interaction volume in this system at 100-200 kV, quantitative bulk STEM EBIC imaging is possible due to the small STEM probe beam diameter and sustained collimation of the incident electron beam in the sample. Using a combination of experimental bulk STEM EBIC measurements, Monte Carlo simulations, and numerical simulations, a hole diffusion length of 250 ± 15 nm was determined for homoepitaxial n-GaN samples with a threading dislocation of approximately 10^6 cm^-2. In-situ reverse biasing measurements allowed for the measurement of depletion region growth with increasing bias. Furthermore, accumulated electron irradiation damage was studied at 200 kV. An accumulated dose of 24 x 10^16 electrons cm^-2 caused a 35% reduction in the minority carrier diffusion length which is attributed to knock-on damage of the N sublattice. Additionally, the design and development of a custom STEM holder for in-situ liquid cell electrochemical microscopy is discussed.Item PHOSPHOLIPID BEHAVIOR AND DYNAMICS IN CURVED BIOLOGICAL MEMBRANES(2020) JING, HAOYUAN; Das, Siddhartha SD; Mechanical Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Curvature in biological membranes defines the morphology of cells and organelles and serves key roles in maintaining a variety of cellular functions, enabling trafficking, recruiting and localizing shape-responsive proteins. For example, the bacterial protein SpoVM is a small amphipathic alpha-helical protein that localizes to the outer surface of a forespore, the only convex surface in the mother bacteria. Understanding several of these membrane curvature dependent events rely on a thorough understanding of the properties, energetics, and interactions of the constituent lipid molecules in presence of curvatures. In this dissertation, we have used molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to explore how the curvature of the lipid bilayer (LBL), a simplified mimic of the cell membrane, affects the packing fraction and diffusivity of lipid molecules in the LBL, energetics of lipid flip flop in the LBL, and lipid desorption from the LBLs. We have also investigated the interaction between LBLs and a small bacterial protein, SpoVM, which was previously shown to preferentially embed in positively curved membranes. Our work started with simulating convex surface, represented by the nanoparticle supported lipid bilayers (NPSLBLs) in MD. We first quantified the self-assembly, structure, and properties of a NPSLBL with a diameter of 20 nm and showed how the type of the nanoparticle (NP) affects the properties of the NPSLBLs. Second, we studied the energetics of lipid flip flop and desorption from LBLs for the cases of planar substrate supported lipid bilayer (PSSLBL) and NPSLBL. Finally, we investigated the energetics of SpoVM desorption from the PSSLBL and the NPSLBL providing clues to the fundamental driving forces dictating the curvature sensing of SpoVM. In Chapter 1, we discuss the motivation, methods, biological relevance, and the overall structure of this thesis. In Chapter 2, the structure and properties of a pre-assembled NPSLBL were studied. In Chapter 3, we report the MD simulation results on the structure and properties, such as diffusivity, of the lipid molecules within the LBLs of the NPSLBLs formed through the self-assembly route. We compare our findings with that of unsupported lipid bilayer nanovesicles (NVs). Our results show that the structure of the NPSLBLs, although affected by the type of the NPs, is still similar with the free NV consisting of identical number and species of lipid. On the other hand, the properties such as the diffusivity of the lipid molecules within the LBL are significantly different between the cases of NPSLBL and the free vesicle. Results are provided for different combinations of the lipid molecules and the NP materials. The findings described in Chapters 2 and 3 will be eventually useful in long-term for designing new generation of NPSLBLs as drug carrier. In Chapter 4, we focus on the lipid flip-flop and desorption from the LBLs for NPSLBLs and PSSLBLs. We investigated the energetics of a lipid molecule traversing through the lipid bilayer (from inner-to-outer and outer-to-inner leaflet) as a function of the position of the hydrophilic head group of the lipid within the LBL. We obtained the potential of mean force (PMF) by using umbrella sampling. Most importantly, we observed little effect of the curvature in the variation of the lipid flip-flop PMF, establishing that the energetics of lipid migration within the supported bilayer, which implies that energy changes associated with bilayer fluctuations, is independent of the shape of the supported bilayer. The conclusion is supported by the reported experimental results. Next, in Chapter 5, MD simulations are carried out to reveal the energetics of a single SpoVM protein undergoing desorption from LBLs of NPSLBLs and PSSLBLs. The free energy comprises of five different contributions: 1) the free energy change for deforming the protein in the bilayer with respect to the conformation of the protein in the membrane, 2) the free energy change for reorienting the protein in the bilayer about the first Euler angle with the conformation of the protein restrained, 3) the free energy change for reorienting the protein in the bilayer about the second Euler angle with the conformation and the first Euler angle restrained, 4) the free energy change for changing the position of the center of the protein from the membrane to the bulk water with conformation and both Euler angles restrained, and 5) the free energy change for deformation of the protein in the bulk water with respect to the conformation of the protein in the membrane. Through these simulations, we confirmed that SpoVM prefers NPSLBLs rather than PSSLBLs, indicating by a lower free energy change. Additionally, we revealed that the SpoVM membrane sensing is based on the interplay between the packing of the hydrophilic head groups of the lipids and the packing of the acyl chains of the lipids. Our findings reported in Chapter 5 might be helpful in the development of diagnosis and treatment of diseases associated with protein mislocalization.Item Self-Assembly in Polar Organic Solvents(2019) Agrawal, Niti; Raghavan, Srinivasa R; Chemical Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Self-assembly of amphiphilic molecules occurs extensively in water, and can result in a variety of large, nanoscale aggregates, including long cylindrical chains called wormlike micelles (WLMs), as well as nanoscale containers called vesicles. However, in organic solvents of polarity lower than water, such as formamide, glycerol, and ethylene glycol, self-assembly has been demonstrated only to a limited extent. While there are reports of small micelles in these solvents, there are no reports of large structures such as WLMs and vesicles (with at least one length scale > 100 nm). In this dissertation, we show that both WLMs and vesicles can be formed in these solvents, and thereby our work expands the possibilities for self-assembly to new systems. Applications for the fluids developed here could arise in cosmetics, pharmaceutics, antifreeze agents, and lubricants. In the first part of this study, we demonstrate the formation of WLMs in polar solvents like glycerol and formamide. WLMs in water are induced by combining a cationic surfactant and a salt, but the combinations that work for water mostly do not work in polar solvents. The combination that does work in the latter involves a cationic surfactant with a very long (erucyl, C22) tail and an aromatic salt such as sodium salicylate. These WLMs display viscoelastic and shear-thinning rheology, as expected. By using a low-freezing mixture of glycerol and ethylene glycol, we are able to devise formulations in which WLMs remain intact down to sub-zero temperatures (–20°C). Thereby, we have been able to extend the range for WLM existence to much lower temperatures than in previous studies. Next, in the second part, we focus on the dynamic rheology of WLMs in glycerol, which is shown to be very different from that of WLMs in water. Specifically, WLMs in glycerol exhibit a double-crossover of their elastic (G′) and viscous (G″) moduli within the range of frequencies accessible by a rheometer. We believe that the high viscosity of glycerol influences the rheology at high frequencies. We also hypothesize that the WLMs in glycerol are shorter and weakly entangled compared to WLMs in water. Moreover, in terms of their dynamics, we suggest that WLMs in glycerol are similar to polymers – i.e., the chains will remain intact and not break and re-form frequently. In the last study, we demonstrate the formation of vesicles in polar solvents (glycerol, formamide and ethylene glycol) using the simple phospholipid, lecithin. Lecithin dissolves readily in polar solvents and gives rise to viscous fluids at low concentrations (~ 2 to 4%). At higher concentrations (> 10 wt%), lecithin forms clear gels that are strongly birefringent at rest. Dynamic rheology of the latter reveals an elastic, gel-like response. Images from cryo-scanning electron microscopy (cryo-SEM) indicate that the concentrated samples are ‘vesicle gels’, where multilamellar vesicles (MLVs, also called onions), with sizes between 50 to 600 nm, are close-packed across the sample volume. This structure explains both the rheology and the birefringence.Item PHONON MEDIATED THERMAL TRANSPORT IN TRANSITION METAL DICHALCOGENIDES(2020) Peng, Jie; Chung, Peter W; Mechanical Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) have attracted extensive interests due to outstanding electronic, optical, and mechanical properties, thus are highly promising in nanoelectronic device applications. However, comprehensive understanding of phonon mediated thermal transport in TMDCs is still lacking despite the important roles they play in determining the device performance. The topics requiring further explorations include the full Brillouin zone (BZ) phonons, temperature dependence of thermal properties, and structural-thermal relations of TMDCs. In determining above phonon transport characteristics, the anharmonic effect plays a central role. In this thesis, we present studies on the phonon properties of two TMDC materials, namely MoS2 and HfS2. In the first study, effect of folding on the electronic and phonon transport properties of single-layer MoS2 are investigated. The atomic structure, ground state electronic, and phonon transport properties of folded SLMoS2 as a function of wrapping length are determined. The folded structure is found to be largely insensitive to the wrapping length. The electronic band gap varies significantly as a function of the wrapping length, while the phonon properties are insensitive to the wrapping length. The possibility of modulating the gap values while keeping the thermal properties unchanged opens up new exciting avenues for further applications of MoS2. In the second study, we show that anharmonic phonon scattering in HfS2 leads to a structural phase transition. For the first time, we discover the 3R phase above 300 K. In experiments, we observe a change in the first-order temperature coefficients of A1g and Eg mode frequencies, and lattice parameters a and c at room temperature. Moreover, an anomalous phonon stiffening of A1g mode below 300 K is also observed. The first-principle simulations find a phase transition at 300 K which is characterized by a change in the stacking order from AAA to ABC. The simulations are validated by good agreements with experimental measurements on all the above temperature coefficients. By comparing DFT calculations under harmonic and anharmonic phonon approximation, we attribute the phase change to be due to phonon anharmonicity. The anomalous A1g phonon stiffening is due to decrease of the intralayer thickness of the HfS2 trailayer, as temperature increases.Item TOPOLOGICAL PHOTONICS AND EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES IN QUANTUM OPTICS(2020) ORRE, VENKATA VIKRAM; Hafezi, Mohammad; Electrical Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Topological photonics is the study of how the geometries and topologies of devices can be used to manipulate the behavior of photons. Many topological models exhibit edge states, a defining feature of these models, which travel around the perimeter of the lattice and are not affected by disorder. These edge states can help create scalable delay lines, quantum sources of light, and lasers all of which are robust against fabrication-induced disorder and bends in photonic structures. This research proposal is structured into two parts. In the first half of this thesis, we investigate a topological model and study some of its quantum applications. First, we realize the anomalous quantum Hall effect in a photonic platform using a 2D array of ring resonators with zero flux threading the lattice. The lattice implements a Haldane model by using the next-nearest couplings in lattice to simulate a nonzero local gauge flux while having a net flux of zero. The lattice hosts edge states, which are imaged through a CCD camera and show robustness against missing site-defects, 90 degree bends and fabrication-induced disorder. We also demonstrate a topological non-trivial to trivial phase transition by simply detuning the ring resonances. Next, we show degenerate photon pair creation in an anomalous quantum Hall device using a dual-pump spontaneous fourwave mixing process. The linear dispersion in the edge band results in an efficient phase matching and shows up as maximum counts in spectral correlations. The flatness of edge band also allows us to tune the bandwidth of the quantum source by changing the pump frequencies. Furthermore, we verify the indistinguishability of the photons using a Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) experiment. Finally, we simulate the transport of time-bin entangled photons in an integer quantum Hall device. The edges states preserve the temporal correlations and are robust against fabrication induced disorder. In contrast, the bulk states in the device exhibit localization, which is manifested in bunching/anti-bunching behavior. In the second part, we explore a few experimental quantum optics techniques developed as a part of investigating quantum transport in topological devices. We demonstrate two experimental techniques: 1. We use an EOM-based time-lens technique to resolve temporal correlations of time-bin entangled photons, which would have been otherwise inaccessible due to the limited temporal resolution of single photon detectors. Our time-lens also maps temporal correlations to spectral correlations and provides a way of manipulating frequency-bin entangled photons. 2. We show frequency-resolved interference of two and three photons distinguishable in time, which would not have interfered in a standard Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) setup. Our setup can be extended to implement temporal boson sampling using phase modulators. Furthermore, we demonstrate time-reversed HOM-like interference using time-bin entangled photon pairs and show that the spectral correlations are sensitive to phase between photons. Lastly, we demonstrate some miscellaneous experimental techniques, such as the design of the electronics used for time-lens, optimal spontaneous parametric down conversion parameters, measuring joint spectral intensity using a chirped bragg grating, and simultaneous measurement of Hong-Ou-Mandel interference for different frequencies.Item INTEGRATED QUANTUM PHOTONIC CIRCUITS WITH QUANTUM DOTS(2019) Aghaeimeibodi, Shahriar; Waks, Edo; Electrical Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Scalable quantum photonics require efficient single-photon emitters as well as low-loss reconfigurable photonic platforms that connect and manipulate these single photons. Quantum dots are excellent sources of on-demand single photons and can act as stable quantum memories. Therefore, integration of quantum dots with photonic platforms is crucial for many applications in quantum information processing. In this thesis, we first describe hybrid integration of InAs quantum dots hosted in InP to silicon photonic waveguides. We demonstrate an efficient transition of quantum emission to silicon. Quantum nature of the emission is confirmed through photon correlation measurements. Secondly, we present a micro-disk resonator device based on silicon photonics that enables on-chip filtering and routing of single photons generated by quantum dots. The tunability of silicon photonics decreases at low temperatures due to “carrier freeze-out”. Because of a strong electro-optic effect in lithium niobate, this material is the ideal platform for reconfigurable photonics, even at cryogenic temperatures. To this end, we demonstrate integration of quantum dots with thin-film lithium niobate photonics promising for active switching and modulating of single photons. More complex quantum photonic devices require multiple identical single-photon emitters on the chip. However, the transition wavelength of quantum dots varies because of the slightly different shape and size of each dot. To address this hurdle, we propose and characterize a quantum dot device located in an electrostatic field. The resonance wavelength of the quantum dot emission is tuned up to 8 nm, more than one order of magnitude greater than the transition linewidth, opening the possibility of tuning multiple quantum dots in resonance with each other. Finally, we discuss the application of a single quantum dot strongly coupled to a nanophotonic cavity as an efficient medium for non-linear phenomenon of optical amplification. Presence of a strong pump laser inverses the population of the quantum dot and leads to stimulated emission from the cavity-coupled quantum dot. Using this platform, we observe an optical gain of ~ 16%, significantly increased compared to previous demonstrations of gain in single solid-state quantum emitters without cavities or weakly coupled to cavities. These demonstrations are significant steps toward robust control of single photons using linear and non-linear photonic platforms.