We show that fractional decay may be observable in experiments using quantum dots and photonic crystals with parameters that are currently achievable. We focus on the case of inverse opal photonic crystals and locate the position in the crystal where the effect is most pronounced. Furthermore, we quantify the influence of absorptive loss and show that it is a limiting but not prohibitive effect.
We propose a new scheme for solid-state photonic quantum computation in which trapped photons in optical cavities are taken as a quantum bit. Quantum gates can be realized by coupling the cavities with quantum dots through waveguides. The proposed scheme allows programmable and deterministic gate operations and the system can be scaled up to many quantum bits.
We present time-resolved spontaneous emission measurements of single quantum dots embedded in photonic crystal waveguides. Quantum dots that couple to the photonic crystal waveguide are found to decay up to 27 times faster than uncoupled quantum dots. From these measurements $β$-factors of up to 0.89 are derived, and an unprecedented large bandwidth of 20 nm is demonstrated. This shows the promising potential of photonic crystal waveguides for efficient single-photon sources. The scaled frequency where the enhancement is observed is in excellent agreement with theory taking into account that t…
We have measured the variation of the spontaneous emission rate with polarization for self-assembled single quantum dots in two-dimensional photonic crystal membranes. We observe a maximum anisotropy factor of 6 between the decay rates of the two bright exciton states. This large anisotropy is attributed to the substantially different projected local density of optical states for differently oriented dipoles in the photonic crystal.
We propose a scheme for realizing two-qubit quantum phase gates with two nonidentical quantum dots trapped in two coupled photonic crystal cavities and driven by classical laser fields. During the gate operation, neither the cavity modes nor the quantum dots are excited, so the decoherence can be suppressed. The system can acquire a phase conditional upon the states of the quantum dots, which can be used to realize the controlled phase gate.
We use single self-assembled InGaAs quantum dots as internal probes to map the local density of optical states of photonic crystal membranes. The employed technique separates contributions from non-radiative recombination and spin-flip processes by properly accounting for the role of the exciton fine structure. We observe inhibition factors as high as 55 and compare our results to local density of optical states calculations available from the literature, thereby establishing a quantitative understanding of photon emission in photonic crystal membranes.
We propose a scheme for realizing a two-qubit controlled phase gate via an unconventional geometric phase with two nonresonant quantum dots trapped in a photonic crystal cavity. In this system, the quantum dots simultaneously interact with a large detuned cavity mode and strong driving classical light fields. During the gate operation, the quantum dots undergo no transitions, while the cavity mode is displaced along a closed path in the phase space. In this way, the system can acquire geometric phases conditional upon the states of the quantum dots. After implementing single-qubit operations, …
We show that the two-photon transition rates of quantum dots coupled to nanocavities are enhanced by up to 8 orders of magnitude relative to quantum dots in bulk host. We then propose how to take advantage of this enhancement to implement coherent quantum dot excitation by two-photon absorption, entangled photon pair generation by two-photon spontaneous emission, and single-photon generation at telecommunication wavelengths by two-photon stimulated and spontaneous emission.
We observe large spontaneous emission rate modification of individual InAs Quantum Dots (QDs) in 2D a photonic crystal with a modified, high-Q single defect cavity. Compared to QDs in bulk semiconductor, QDs that are resonant with the cavity show an emission rate increase by up to a factor of 8. In contrast, off-resonant QDs indicate up to five-fold rate quenching as the local density of optical states (LDOS) is diminished in the photonic crystal. In both cases we demonstrate photon antibunching, showing that the structure represents an on-demand single photon source with pulse duration from 2…
We show that two spatially separated semiconductor quantum dots under resonant and continuous-wave excitation can be strongly entangled in the steady-state, thanks to their radiative coupling by mutual interaction through the normal modes of a photonic crystal dimer. We employ a quantum master equation formalism to quantify the steady-state entanglement by calculating the system {\it negativity}. Calculations are specified to consider realistic semiconductor nanostructure parameters for the photonic crystal dimer-quantum dots coupled system, determined by a guided mode expansion solution of Ma…
Quantum networks based on InGaAs quantum dots embedded in photonic crystal devices rely on QDs being in resonance with each other and with the cavities they are embedded in. We developed a new technique based on temperature tuning to spectrally align different quantum dots located on the same chip. The technique allows for up to 1.8nm reversible on-chip quantum dot tuning.
The electro-optic, acousto-optic and nonlinear properties of lithium niobate make it a highly versatile material platform for integrated quantum photonic circuits. A prerequisite for quantum technology applications is the ability to efficiently integrate single photon sources, and to guide the generated photons through ad-hoc circuits. Here we report the integration of quantum dots in monolayer WSe2 into a Ti in-diffused lithium niobate directional coupler. We investigate the coupling of individual quantum dots to the waveguide mode, their spatial overlap, and the overall efficiency of the hyb…
We demonstrate scattering of laser light from two InAs quantum dots coupled to a photonic crystal waveguide, which is achieved by strain-tuning the optical transitions of the dots into mutual resonance. By performing measurements of the intensity and photon statistics of transmitted laser light before and after tuning the dots into resonance, we show that the nonlinearity is enhanced by collective scattering. In addition to providing a means of manipulating few-photon optical nonlinearities, our approach establishes new opportunities for multi-emitter quantum optics in a solid-state platform.
Systems of photonic crystal cavities coupled to quantum dots are a promising architecture for quantum networking and quantum simulators. The ability to independently tune the frequencies of laterally separated quantum dots is a crucial component of such a scheme. Here, we demonstrate independent tuning of laterally separated quantum dots in photonic crystal cavities coupled by in-plane waveguides by implanting lines of protons which serve to electrically isolate different sections of a diode structure.
This chapter will primarily focus on the studies of quantum optics with semiconductor, epitaxially grown quantum dots embedded in photonic crystal cavities. We will start by giving brief introductions into photonic crystals and quantum dots, then proceed with the introduction to cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) effects, with a particular emphasis on the demonstration of these effects on the quantum dot-photonic crystal platform. Finally, we will focus on the applications of such cavity QED effects.
We propose a method to generate a two-dimensional cluster state of polarization encoded photonic qubits from two coupled quantum dot emitters. We combine the recent proposal [N. H. Lindner and T. Rudolph, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 113602 (2009)] for generating 1-dimensional cluster state strings from a single dot, with a new proposal for an optically induced conditional phase (CZ) gate between the two quantum dots. The entanglement between the two quantum dots translates to entanglement between the two photonic cluster state strings. Further inter-pair coupling of the quantum dots using cavities a…
We demonstrate room temperature visible wavelength photoluminescence from In0.5Ga0.5As quantum dots embedded in a GaP membrane. Time-resolved above band photoluminescence measurements of quantum dot emission show a biexpontential decay with lifetimes of ~200 ps. We fabricate photonic crystal cavities which provide enhanced outcoupling of quantum dot emission, allowing the observation of narrow lines indicative of single quantum dot emission. This materials system is compatible with monolithic integration on Si, and is promising for high efficiency detection of single quantum dot emission as we…
A new implementation of the topological cluster state quantum computer is suggested, in which the basic elements are linear optics, measurements, and a two-dimensional array of quantum dots. This overcomes the need for non-linear devices to create a lattice of entangled photons. We give estimates of the minimum efficiencies needed for the detectors, fusion gates and quantum dots, from a numerical simulation.
We present measurements of the beta-factor, describing the coupling efficiency of light emitted by single InAs/GaAs semiconductor quantum dots into a photonic crystal waveguide mode. The beta-factor is evaluated by means of time-resolved frequency-dependent photoluminescence spectroscopy. The emission wavelength of single quantum dots is temperature tuned across the band edge of a photonic crystal waveguide and the spontaneous emission rate is recorded. Decay rates up to 5.7 ns^(-1), corresponding to a Purcell factor of 5.2, are measured and beta-factors up to 85% are extracted. These results …
We report on a series of experiments on the dynamics of spontaneous emission controlled nanolasers. The laser cavity is a photonic crystal slab cavity, embedding self-assembled quantum dots as gain material. The implementation of cavity electrodynamics effects increases significantly the large signal modulation bandwidth, with measured modulation speeds of the order of 10 GHz while keeping an extinction ratio of 19 dB. A linear transient wavelength shift is reported, corresponding to a chirp of less than 100 pm for a 35-ps laser pulse. We observe that the chirp characteristics are independent …
We demonstrate the ability to control the spontaneous emission dynamics of self-assembled quantum dots via the local density of optical modes in 2D-photonic crystals. We show that an incomplete 2D photonic bandgap is sufficient to significantly lengthen the spontaneous emission lifetime ($>2\times$) over a wide bandwidth ($Δλ\geq40$ nm). For dots that are both \textit{spectrally} and \textit{spatially} coupled to strongly localized ($V_{mode}\sim1.5(λ/n)^{3}$), high $Q\sim2700$ optical modes, we have directly measured a strong Purcell enhanced shortening of the emission lifetime $\geq5.6\times…
Interfacing single emitters and photonic nanostructures enables modifying their emission properties, such as enhancing individual decay rates or controlling the emission direction. To achieve full control, the single emitter must be positioned in the nanostructures deterministically. Here, we use spectroscopy to gain spectral and spatial information about individual quantum dots in order to position each emitter in a pre-determined location in a unit cell of a photonic-crystal waveguide. Depending on the spatial and spectral positioning within the structured nanophotonic mode, we observe that …
It is well known that a parallel quantum computer is more powerful than a classical one. So far, there are some important works about the construction of universal quantum logic gates, the key elements in quantum computation. However, they are focused on operating on one degree of freedom (DOF) of quantum systems. Here, we investigate the possibility of achieving scalable hyper-parallel quantum computation based on two DOFs of photon systems. We construct a deterministic hyper-controlled-not (hyper-CNOT) gate operating on both the spatial-mode and the polarization DOFs of a two-photon system s…
Indistinguishable single photons are necessary for quantum information processing applications. Resonant or quasiresonant excitation of single quantum dots provides greater single photon indistinguishability than incoherent pumping, but is also more challenging experimentally. Here, we demonstrate high signal to noise quasiresonant excitation of InP/InGaP quantum dots. The excitation is provided via second harmonic generated from a telecommunications wavelength laser resonant with the fundamental mode of a photonic crystal cavity, fabricated at twice the quantum dot transition wavelength. The …
We show unusual cooperative two-photon resonance between two-modes of field inside a photonic crystal cavity. The two-photon resonance occurs when two off resonant quantum dots emit one photon in each cavity mode and de-excite simultaneously. In the presence of phonon coupling the conditions for two-photon resonance change significantly. Using such two-photon two-mode interaction we propose to generate entangled state of two qutrits. The basis of a qutrit are formed by the state of the cavity mode containing $0$, $1$ and $2$ photons. We also discuss effect of phonon coupling on negativity of t…
Quantum dots are both excellent single-photon sources and hosts for single spins. This combination enables the deterministic generation of Raman-photons -- bandwidth-matched to an atomic quantum-memory -- and the generation of photon cluster states, a resource in quantum communication and measurement-based quantum computing. GaAs quantum dots in AlGaAs can be matched in frequency to a rubidium-based photon memory, and have potentially improved electron spin coherence compared to the widely used InGaAs quantum dots. However, their charge stability and optical linewidths are typically much worse…
We study the mutual interaction between two identical quantum dots coupled to the normal modes of two-site photonic crystal molecules in a planar waveguide geometry, i.e. photonic crystal dimers. We find that the radiative coupling between the two quantum emitters is maximized when they are in resonance with either the bonding or the antibonding modes of the coupled cavity system. Moreover, we find that such effective interdot coupling is sizable, in the meV range, and almost independent from the cavities distance, as long as a normal mode splitting exceeding the radiative linewidth can be est…
Using a polaron master equation approach we investigate the resonance fluorescence spectra from coherently driven quantum dots (QDs) coupled to an acoustic phonon bath and a photonic crystal waveguide with a rich local density of photon states (LDOS). Resonance fluorescence spectra from QDs in semiconductor crystals are known to show strong signatures of electron-phonon interactions, but when coupled to a structured photonic reservoir, the QD emission properties are also determined by the frequency dependence of the LDOS of the photon reservoir. Here, we investigate the simultaneous role of co…
Recent breakthroughs in solid-state photonic quantum technologies enable generating and detecting single photons with near-unity efficiency as required for a range of photonic quantum technologies. The lack of methods to simultaneously generate and control photons within the same chip, however, has formed a main obstacle to achieving efficient multi-qubit gates and to harness the advantages of chip-scale quantum photonics. Here we propose and demonstrate an integrated voltage-controlled phase shifter based on the electro-optic effect in suspended photonic waveguides with embedded quantum emitt…
We report on the control of the spontaneous emission dynamics from InAsP self-assembled quantum dots emitting in the telecommunications C-band and weakly coupled to the mode of a double heterostructure cavity etched on a suspended InP membrane at room temperature. The quality factor of the cavity mode is 44x10^3 with an ultra-low modal volume of the order of 1.2 lambda/n)^3, inducing an enhancement of the spontaneous emission rate of up a factor of 2.8 at 300 K.
Thin film 4H-silicon carbide (4H-SiC) is emerging as a contender for realizing large-scale optical quantum circuits due to its high CMOS technology compatibility and large optical nonlinearities. Though, challenges remain in producing wafer-scale 4H-SiC thin film on insulator (4H-SiCOI) for dense integration of photonic circuits, and in efficient coupling of deterministic quantum emitters that are essential for scalable quantum photonics. Here we demonstrate hybrid integration of self-assembled InGaAs quantum dots (QDs) based single-photon sources (SPSs) with wafer-scale 4H-SiC photonic chips …
We demonstrate the coupling of PbS quantum dot emission to photonic crystal cavities at room temperature. The cavities are defined in 33% Al, AlGaAs membranes on top of oxidized AlAs. Quantum dots were dissolved in Poly-methyl-methacrylate (PMMA) and spun on top of the cavities. Quantum dot emission is shown to map out the structure resonances, and may prove to be viable sources for room temperature cavity coupled single photon generation for quantum information processing applications. These results also indicate that such commercially available quantum dots can be used for passive structure …
Implementations for quantum computing require fast single- and multi-qubit quantum gate operations. In the case of optically controlled quantum dot qubits theoretical designs for long-range two- or multi-qubit operations satisfying all the requirements in quantum computing are not yet available. We have developed a design for a fast, long-range two-qubit gate mediated by a photonic microcavity mode using excited states of the quantum dot-cavity system that addresses these needs. This design does not require identical qubits, it is compatible with available optically induced single qubit operat…
Photonic nanostructures provide means of tailoring the interaction between light and matter and the past decade has witnessed a tremendous experimental and theoretical progress in this subject. In particular, the combination with semiconductor quantum dots has proven successful. This manuscript reviews quantum optics with excitons in single quantum dots embedded in photonic nanostructures. The ability to engineer the light-matter interaction strength in integrated photonic nanostructures enables a range of fundamental quantum-electrodynamics experiments on, e.g., spontaneous-emission control, …
We develop a general microscopic theory describing the phonon decoherence of quantum dots and indistinguishability of the emitted photons in photonic structures. The coherence is found to depend fundamentally on the dimensionality of the structure resulting in vastly different performance for quantum dots embedded in a nano-cavity (0D), waveguide (1D), slab (2D), or bulk medium (3D). In bulk, we find a striking temperature dependence of the dephasing rate scaling as $T^{11}$ implying that phonons are effectively 'frozen out' for $T \lesssim 4 \mathrm{K}$. The phonon density of states is strong…
Electron-phonon coupling in semiconductor quantum dots plays a significant role in determining the optical properties of excited excitons, especially the spectral nature of emitted photons. This paper presents a comprehensive theory and analysis of emission spectra from artificial atoms or quantum dots coupled to structured photon reservoirs and acoustic phonons, when excited with incoherent pump fields. As specific examples of structured reservoirs, we chose a Lorentzian cavity and a coupled cavity waveguide, which are of current experimental interest. For the case of optical cavities, we dir…
We propose a method to generate path-entangled $N00N$-state photons from quantum dots (QDs) and coupled nanocavities. In the systems we considered, cavity mode frequencies are tuned close to the biexciton two-photon resonance. Under appropriate conditions, the system can have the target $N00N$ state in the energy eigenstate, as a consequence of destructive quantum interference. The $N00N$ state can be generated by the resonant laser excitation. This method, first introduced for two-photon $N00N$ state ($N=2$), can be extended toward higher $N00N$ state ($N>2$) based on our recipe, which is app…
Highly entangled graph states of photons have applications in universal quantum computing and in quantum communications. In the latter context, they have been proposed as the key ingredient in the establishment of long-distance entanglement across quantum repeater networks. Recently, a general deterministic approach to generate repeater graph states from quantum emitters was given. However, a detailed protocol for the generation of such states from realistic systems is still needed in order to guide experiments. Here, we provide such explicit protocols for the generation of repeater graph stat…
We discuss the appearance of fractional topological phases on cyclic evolutions of entangled qudits encoded on photonic degrees of freedom. We show how the spatial correlations between photons generated by spontaneous parametric down conversion can be used to evidence the multiple topological phases acquired by entangled qudits and the role played by the Hilbert space dimension. A realistic experimental proposal is presented with numerical predictions of the expected results.
We consider the problem of shot noise in resonant tunneling through double quantum dots in the case of interacting particles. Using a many-body quantum mechanical description we evaluate the energy dependent transmission probability, the total average current and the shot noise spectrum. Our results show that the obtained reduction of the noise spectrum, due to Coulomb interaction, can be interpret in terms of non--interacting particles with fractional charge like behavior.
Planar nanophotonic structures enable broadband, near-unity coupling of emission from quantum dots embedded within, thereby realizing ideal singe-photon sources. The efficiency and coherence of the single-photon source is limited by charge noise, which results in the broadening of the emission spectrum.We report suppression of the noise by fabricating photonic crystal waveguides in a gallium arsenide membrane containing quantum dots embedded in a $p$-$i$-$n$ diode. Local electrical contacts in the vicinity of the waveguides minimize the leakage current and allow fast electrical control ($\appr…
We propose a scheme for realizing quantum controlled phase gates with two nonidentical quantum dots trapped in two coupled photonic crystal cavities and driven by classical laser fields under the condition of non-small hopping limit. During the gate operation, neither the quantum dots are excited, while the system can acquire different phases conditional upon the different states of the quantum dots. Along with single-qubit operations, a two-qubit controlled phase gate can be achieved.
Quantum dot photonic crystal membrane lasers were fabricated and the large signal modulation characteristics were studied. We find that the modulation characteristics of quantum dot lasers can be significantly improved using cavities with large spontaneous emission coupling factor. Our experiments show, and simulations confirm, that the modulation rate is limited by the rate of carrier capture into the dots to around 30GHz in our present system.
The spectra of two-dimensional photonic crystal slab nanocavities with embedded InAs quantum dots are measured by photoluminescence and reflectance. In comparing the spectra taken by these two different methods, consistency with the nanocavities' resonant wavelengths is found. Furthermore, it is shown that the reflectance method can measure both active and passive cavities. Q-factors of nanocavities, whose resonant wavelengths range from 1280 to 1620 nm, are measured by the reflectance method in cross polarization. Experimentally, Q-factors decrease for longer wavelengths and the intensity, re…
Single photon emitters are indispensable to photonic quantum technologies. Here we demonstrate waveform-controlled high-purity single photons from room-temperature colloidal quantum dots. The purity of the single photons does not vary with the excitation power, thereby allowing the generation rate to be increased without compromising the single-photon quality.
A high-quality quantum dot (QD) single-photon source is a key resource for quantum information processing. Exciting a QD emitter resonantly can greatly suppress decoherence processes and lead to highly indistinguishable single-photon generation. It has, however, remained a challenge to implement strict resonant excitation in a stable and scalable way, without compromising any of the key specs of the source (efficiency, purity, and indistinguishability). In this work, we propose a novel dual-mode photonic-crystal waveguide that realizes direct in-plane resonant excitation of the embedded QDs. T…
Semiconductor quantum dots embedded in photonic-crystal nanostructures have been the subject of intense study. In this context, quantum dots are often considered to be simple two-level emitters, i.e., the complexities arising from the internal finestructure are neglected. We show that due to the intricate spatial variations of the electric field polarization found in photonic crystal, the two orthogonal finestructure states of quantum dots in general both couple significantly to a cavity mode, implying that the two-level description is not sufficient. As a consequence the emission dynamics and…
Photonic crystal (PhC) nanocavities with high quality (Q) factors have attracted much attention because of their strong spatial and temporal light confinement capability. The resulting enhanced light-matter interactions are beneficial for diverse photonic applications, ranging from on-chip optical communications to sensing. However, currently achievable Q factors for active PhC nanocavities, which embed active emitters inside, are much lower than those of the passive structures because of large optical loss, presumably originating from light scattering by structural imperfections and/or optica…
Spontaneous emission from excitonic transitions in InAs/GaAs quantum dots embedded in photonic crystal waveguides at 5K into non-guided and guided modes is determined by direct hyperspectral imaging. This enables measurement of the absolute coupling efficiency into the guided modes, the beta-factor, directly, without assumptions on decay rates used previously. Notably, we found beta-factors above 90% over a wide spectral range of 40meV in the fast light regime, reaching a maximum of (99 $\pm$ 1)%. We measure the directional emission of the circularly polarized transitions in a magnetic field i…