Generating indistinguishable photons from a quantum dot in a noisy environment

Single photons from semiconductor quantum dots are promising resources for linear optical quantum computing, or, when coupled to spin states, quantum repeaters. To realize such schemes, the photons must exhibit a high degree of indistinguishability. However, the solid-state environment presents inherent obstacles for this requirement as intrinsic semiconductor fluctuations can destroy the photon indistinguishability. Here, we demonstrate that resonant excitation of a quantum dot with a narrow-band laser generates near transform limited power spectra and indistinguishable photons from a single quantum dot in an environment with many charge-fluctuating traps. The specificity of the resonant excitation suppresses the excited state population in the quantum dot when it is detuned due to spectral fluctuations. The dynamics of this process lead to flickering of the emission over long time scales (>5 μs) and reduces the time-averaged count rates. Nevertheless, in spite of significant spectral fluctuations, high visibility two-photon interference can be achieved. This approach is useful for quantum dots with nearby surface states in processed photonic structures and quantum emitters in emerging platforms, such as two-dimensional semiconductors

Resonance fluorescence from a telecom-wavelength quantum dot

© 2016 Author(s).We report on resonance fluorescence from a single quantum dot emitting at telecom wavelengths. We perform high-resolution spectroscopy and observe the Mollow triplet in the Rabi regime - a hallmark of resonance fluorescence. The measured resonance-fluorescence spectra allow us to rule out pure dephasing as a significant decoherence mechanism in these quantum dots. Combined with numerical simulations, the experimental results provide robust characterisation of charge noise in the environment of the quantum dot. Resonant control of the quantum dot opens up new possibilities for the on-demand generation of indistinguishable single photons at telecom wavelengths as well as quantum optics experiments and direct manipulation of solid-state qubits in telecom-wavelength quantum dots

Guided self-assembly of lateral InAs/GaAs quantum-dot molecules for single molecule spectroscopy

We report on the growth and characterization of lateral InAs/GaAs (001) quantum-dot molecules (QDMs) suitable for single QDM optical spectroscopy. The QDMs, forming by depositing InAs on GaAs surfaces with self-assembled nanoholes, are aligned along the [] direction. The relative number of isolated single quantum dots (QDs) is substantially reduced by performing the growth on GaAs surfaces containing stepped mounds. Surface morphology and X-ray measurements suggest that the strain produced by InGaAs-filled nanoholes superimposed to the strain relaxation at the step edges are responsible for the improved QDM properties. QDMs are Ga-richer compared to single QDs, consistent with strain- enhanced intermixing. The high optical quality of single QDMs is probed by micro-photoluminescence spectroscopy in samples with QDM densities lower than 108 cm−2

Gigahertz bandwidth electrical control over a dark exciton-based memory bit in a single quantum dot

An optical write-store-read process is demonstrated in a single InGaAs quantum dot within a charge-tunable device. A single dark exciton is created by nongeminate optical excitation allowing a dark exciton-based memory bit to be stored for over ∼ 1 μs. Read-out is performed with a gigahertz bandwidth electrical pulse, forcing an electron spin-flip followed by recombination as a bright neutral exciton, or by charging with an additional electron followed by a recombination as a negative trion. These processes have been used to determine accurately the dark exciton spin-flip lifetime as it varies with static electric field

Van der Waals materials for applications in nanophotonics

Numerous optical phenomena and applications have been enabled by nanophotonic structures. Their current fabrication from high refractive index dielectrics, such as silicon (Si) or gallium phosphide (GaP), pose restricting fabrication challenges while metals, relying on plasmons and thus exhibiting high ohmic losses, limit the achievable applications. An emerging class of layered, so-called van der Waals (vdW), crystals is presented as a viable nanophotonics platform in this work. The dielectric response of 11 mechanically exfoliated thin-film (20–200 nm) vdW crystals is extracted, revealing high refractive indices up to n = 5, pronounced birefringence up to Δn = 3, sharp absorption resonances, and a range of transparency windows from ultraviolet to near-infrared. Nanoantennas are subsequently fabricated on silicon dioxide (SiO2) and gold, utilizing the compatibility of vdW thin films with a variety of substrates. Pronounced Mie resonances are observed due to the high refractive index contrast on SiO2, leading to a strong exciton-photon coupling regime as well as largely unexplored high-quality-factor, hybrid Mie-plasmon modes on gold. Additional vdW-material-specific degrees of freedom in fabrication are further demonstrated by realizing nanoantennas from stacked twisted crystalline thin-films, enabling control of nonlinear optical properties, and post-fabrication nanostructure transfer, important for nano-optics with sensitive materials

Photonic spatial Bell-state analysis for robust quantum secure direct communication using quantum dot-cavity systems

Recently, experiments showed that the spatial-mode states of entangled photons are more robust than their polarization-mode states in quantum communications. Here we construct a complete and deterministic protocol for analyzing the spatial Bell states using the interaction between a photon and an electron spin in a charged quantum dot inside a one-side micropillar microcavity. A quantum nondemolition detector (QND) for checking the parity of a two-photon system can be constructed with the giant optical Faraday rotation in this solid state system. With this parity-check QND, we present a complete and deterministic proposal for the analysis of the four spatial-mode Bell states. Moreover, we present a robust two-step quantum secure direct communication protocol based on the spatial-mode Bell states and the photonic spatial Bell-state analysis. Our analysis shows that our BSA proposal works in both the strong and the weak coupling regimes if the side leakage and cavity loss rate is small.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure