We demonstrate a single-photon source based on a quantum dot in a micropost microcavity that exhibits a large Purcell factor together with a small multi-photon probability. For a quantum dot on resonance with the cavity, the spontaneous emission rate is increased by a factor of five, while the probability to emit two or more photons in the same pulse is reduced to 2% compared to a Poisson-distributed source of the same intensity. In addition to the small multi-photon probability, such a strong Purcell effect is important in a single-photon source for improving the photon outcoupling efficiency and the single-photon generation rate, and for bringing the emitted photon pulses closer to the Fourier transform limit.
We have demonstrated efficient production of triggered single photons by coupling a single semiconductor quantum dot to a three-dimensionally confined optical mode in a micropost microcavity. The efficiency of emitting single photons into a single-mode travelling wave is approximately 38%, which is nearly two orders of magnitude higher than for a quantum dot in bulk semiconductor material. At the same time, the probability of having more than one photon in a given pulse is reduced by a factor of seven as compared to light with Poissonian photon statistics.
This article presents a detailed analysis, based on the first-principles finite-difference time-domain method, of the resonant frequency, quality factor (Q), mode volume (V), and radiation pattern of the fundamental (HE11) mode in a three-dimensional distributed-Bragg-reflector (DBR) micropost microcavity. By treating this structure as a one-dimensional cylindrical photonic crystal containing a single defect, we are able to push the limits of Q/V beyond those achievable by standard micropost designs, based on the simple rules established for planar DBR microcavities. We show that some of the r…
We observe antibunching in the photons emitted from a strongly-coupled single quantum dot and pillar microcavity in resonance. When the quantum dot was spectrally detuned from the cavity mode, the cavity emission remained antibunched, and also anticorrelated from the quantum dot emission. Resonant pumping of the selected quantum dot via an excited state enabled these observations by eliminating the background emitters that are usually coupled to the cavity. This device demonstrates an on-demand single photon source operating in the strong coupling regime, with a Purcell factor of 61 and quantu…
Large conditional phase shifts from coupled atom-cavity systems are a key requirement for building a spin photon interface. This in turn would allow the realisation of hybrid quantum information schemes using spin and photonic qubits. Here we perform high resolution reflection spectroscopy of a quantum dot resonantly coupled to a pillar microcavity. We show both the change in reflectivity as the quantum dot is tuned through the cavity resonance, and measure the conditional phase shift induced by the quantum dot using an ultra stable interferometer. These techniques could be extended to the stu…
Bell's inequality in three coupled quantum dots (QDs) within cavity QED, including Forster and exciton-phonon interactions, is investigated theoretically. For an initially entangled state, Bell's inequality is valid for certain times and violated for some other times. It is shown that the system moves from a product state to a entangled state and back again during it's time evolution.
It is usually assumed that when performing a photoluminescence experiment on a microcavity containing an inhomogeneously broadened quantum dots ensemble, the cavity mode appears as a positive peak with a linewidth that reflects the mode quality factor Q. We show in this article that this conclusion is in general not true, and that the measured mode linewidth depends strongly on the excitation power for microcavities having large Purcell factors. We analyze theoretically this effect in the case of the micropillar cavity and we show that the same microcavity can give rise to a large variety of p…
We present two novel schemes to generate photon polarization entanglement via single electron spins confined in charged quantum dots inside microcavities. One scheme is via entangled remote electron spins followed by negatively-charged exciton emissions, and another scheme is via a single electron spin followed by the spin state measurement. Both schemes are based on giant circular birefringence and giant Faraday rotation induced by a single electron spin in a microcavity. Our schemes are deterministic and can generate an arbitrary amount of multi-photon entanglement. Following similar procedu…
We report on the observation of the strong coupling regime between a single GaAs quantum dot and a microdisk optical mode. Photoluminescence is performed at various temperatures to tune the quantum dot exciton with respect to the optical mode. At resonance, we observe an anticrossing, signature of the strong coupling regime with a well resolved doublet. The Vacuum Rabi splitting amounts to 400 μeV and is twice as large as the individual linewidths.
We investigate the possibility to achieve scalable photonic quantum computing by the giant optical circular birefringence induced by a quantum-dot spin in a double-sided optical microcavity as a result of cavity quantum electrodynamics. We construct a deterministic controlled-not gate on two photonic qubits by two single-photon input-output processes and the readout on an electron-medium spin confined in an optical resonant microcavity. This idea could be applied to multi-qubit gates on photonic qubits and we give the quantum circuit for a three-photon Toffoli gate. High fidelities and high ef…
We propose a deterministic and scalable scheme to construct a two-qubit controlled-NOT (CNOT) gate and realize entanglement swapping between photonic qubits using a quantum-dot (QD) spin in a double-sided optical microcavity. The scheme is based on spin selective photon reflection from the cavity and can be achieved in a nondestructive and heralded way. We assess the feasibility of the scheme and show that the scheme can work in both the weak coupling and the strong coupling regimes. The scheme opens promising perspectives for long-distance photonic quantum communication and distributed quantu…
We show theoretically that entangled photon pairs can be produced on demand through the biexciton decay of a quantum dot strongly coupled to the modes of a photonic crystal. The strong coupling allows to tune the energy of the mixed exciton-photon (polariton) eigenmodes, and to overcome the natural splitting existing between the exciton states coupled with different linear polarizations of light. Polariton states are moreover well protected against dephasing due to their lifetime ten to hundred times shorter than that of a bare exciton. Our analysis shows that the scheme proposed can be achiev…
We demonstrate purely resonant continuous-wave optical laser excitation to coherently prepare an excitonic state of a single semiconductor quantum dot (QDs) inside a high quality pillar microcavity. As a direct proof of QD resonance fluorescence, the evolution from a single emission line to the characteristic Mollow triplet10 is observed under increasing pump power. By controlled utilization of weak coupling between the emitter and the fundamental cavity mode through Purcell-enhancement of the radiative decay, a strong suppression of pure dephasing is achieved, which reflects in close to Fouri…
We propose an entanglement beam splitter (EBS) using a quantum-dot spin in a double-sided optical microcavity. In contrast to the conventional optical beam splitter, the EBS can directly split a photon-spin product state into two constituent entangled states via transmission and reflection with high fidelity and high efficiency (up to 100 percent). This device is based on giant optical circular birefringence induced by a single spin as a result of cavity quantum electrodynamics and the spin selection rule of trion transition (Pauli blocking). The EBS is robust and it is immune to the fine stru…
Semiconductor quantum dots (known as artificial atoms) hold great promise for solid-state quantum networks and quantum computers. To realize a quantum network, it is crucial to achieve light-matter entanglement and coherent quantum-state transfer between light and matter. Here we present a robust photon-spin entangling gate with high fidelity and high efficiency (up to 50 percent) using a charged quantum dot in a double-sided microcavity. This gate is based on giant circular birefringence induced by a single electron spin, and functions as an optical circular polariser which allows only one ci…
Up to now, all the works about constructing quantum logic gates, an essential part in quantum computing, are focused on operating on one degree of freedom (DOF) of quantum systems. Here, we investigate the possibility to achieve a scalable photonic quantum computing based on two DOFs of quantum systems and construct a deterministic hyper-controlled-not (hyper-CNOT) gate operating on both spatial-mode and polarization DOFs of a photon pair simultaneously, by using the giant optical Faraday rotation induced by a single-electron spin in a quantum dot inside a one-side optical microcavity as a res…
We propose a scheme for the quantum nondemolition (QND) measurement of a single electron spin in a single quantum dot (QD). Analytical expressions are obtained for the optical Faraday effect between a quantum dot exciton and microcavity field. The feasibility of the QND measurement of a single electron spin is discussed for a GaAs/AlAs microcavity with an InAs QD.
We present a detailed analysis of exciton-photon interaction in a microcavity made out of a photonic crystal slab. Here we have analyzed a disk-like quantum dot where an exciton is formed. Excitonic eigen-functions in addition to their eigen-energies are found through direct matrix diagonalization, while wave functions corresponding to unbound electron and hole are chosen as the basis set for this procedure. In order to evaluate these wave functions precisely, we have used Luttinger Hamiltonian in the case of hole while ignoring bands adjacent to conduction band for electron states. After anal…
Assisted with linear optical manipulation, single photon, entangled photon pairs, photon measurement, and classical communication, a scheme for two-spin qubits phase gate and teleportation of a CNOT gate between two electron spins from acting on local qubits to acting on remote qubits using quantum dots in optical microcavities is proposed. The scheme is based on spin selective photon reflection from the cavity and is achieved in a deterministic way by the sequential detection of photons and the single-qubit rotations of a single electron spin in a self-assembled GaAs/InAs quantum dot. The fea…
We present experimental results showing phonon-mediated coupling between two quantum dots embedded inside a photonic crystal microcavity. With only one of the dots being spectrally close to the cavity, we observe both frequency up-conversion and down-conversion of the pump light via a $\sim1.2$ THz phonon. We demonstrate this process for both weak and strong regimes of dot-cavity coupling, and provide a simple theoretical model explaining our observations.
We present an entanglement concentration protocols (ECPs) for less-entangled W state with quantum-dot and microcavity coupled system. The present protocol uses the quantum nondemolition measurement on the spin parity to construct the parity check gate. Different from other ECPs, this less-entangled W state with quantum-dot and microcavity coupled system can be concentrated with the help of some single photons. The whole protocol can be repeated to get a higher success probability. It may be useful in current quantum information processing.
Effect of the Förster Interaction and the Pulsed Pumping on the Quantum Correlations of a Two Quantum Dot-Microcavity System in the Strong Coupling Regime
Semiconductor microcavities with artificial single-photon emitters have become one of the backbones of semiconductor quantum optics. In many cases however, technical and physical issues limit the study of optical fields to incoherently excited systems. We analyze the model of a two-level system in a single-mode cavity, where the former is incoherently driven. The specific structure of the applied master equation yields a recurrence relation for the steady-state values of correlations of the intracavity field and the emitter. We provide boundary conditions, that permit a systematical, easy to i…
We analyze the impact of both an incoherent and a coherent continuous excitation on our proposal to generate a two-photon state from a quantum dot in a microcavity [New J. Phys. 13, 113014 (2011)]. A comparison between exact numerical results and analytical formulas provides the conditions to efficiently generate indistinguishable and simultaneous pairs of photons under both types of excitation.
We present coherent reflection spectroscopy on a charge and DC Stark tunable quantum dot embedded in a high-quality and externally mode-matched microcavity. The addition of an exciton to a single-electron charged quantum dot forms a trion that interacts with the microcavity just below strong coupling regime of cavity quantum electrodynamics. Such an integrated, monolithic system is a crucial step towards the implementation of scalable hybrid quantum information schemes that are based on an efficient interaction between a single photon and a confined electron spin.
We show that it is possible to realize quantum superpositions of switched-on and -off strong light-matter interaction in a single quantum dot- semiconductor microcavity system. Such superpositions enable the observation of counterintuitive quantum conditional dynamics effects. Situations are possible where cavity photons as well as the emitter luminescence display exponential decay but their joint detection probability exhibits vacuum Rabi oscillations. Remarkably, these quantum correlations are also present in the nonequilibrium steady state spectra of such coherently driven dissipative quant…
We investigate theoretically two-photon processes in a microcavity containing one quantum dot in the strong coupling regime. The cavity mode can be tuned to resonantly drive the two-photon transition between the ground and the biexciton states, while the exciton states are far-off resonance due to the biexciton binding energy. We study the steady state of the quantum dot and cavity field in presence of a continuous incoherent pumping. We identify the regime where the system acts as two-photon emitter and discuss the feasibility and performance of realistic single quantum dot devices for two-ph…
We study the photon emission from a quantum dot embedded in a microcavity. Incoherent pumping of its excitons and biexciton provokes the emission of leaky and cavity modes. By solving a master equation we obtain the correlation functions required to compute the spectrum and the relative efficiency among the emission of pairs and single photons. A quantum regime appears for low pumping and large rate of emission. By means of a post-selection process, a two beams experiment with different linear polarizations could be performed producing a large polarization entanglement visibility precisely in …
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…
We investigate the strong coupling regime of a self-assembled quantum dot in a tunable microcavity with dark-field laser spectroscopy. The high quality of the spectra allows the lineshapes to be analyzed revealing subtle quantum interferences. Agreement with a model calculation is achieved only by including exciton dephasing which reduces the cooperativity from a bare value of 9.0 to the time-averaged value 5.5. In the pursuit of high cooperativity, besides a high-Q and low mode-volume cavity, we demonstrate that equal efforts need to be taken towards lifetime-limited emitter linewidths.
We report the efficient coherent photon scattering from a semiconductor quantum dot embedded in a pillar microcavity. We show that a surface acoustic wave can periodically modulate the energy levels of the quantum dot, but has a negligible effect on the cavity mode. The scattered narrow-band laser is converted to a pulsed single-photon stream, displaying an anti-bunching dip characteristic of single-photon emission. Multiple phonon sidebands are resolved in the emission spectrum, due to the absorption and emission of vibrational quanta in each scattering event.
We demonstrate the emission of highly indistinguishable photons from a quasi-resonantly pumped coupled quantum dot--microcavity system operating in the regime of cavity quantum electrodynamics. Changing the sample temperature allows us to vary the quantum dot--cavity detuning, and on spectral resonance we observe a three-fold improvement in the Hong--Ou--Mandel interference visibility, reaching values in excess of 80\%. Our measurements off-resonance allow us to investigate varying Purcell enhancements, and to probe the dephasing environment at different temperatures and energy scales. By comp…
We propose and characterize a two-photon emitter in a highly polarised, monochromatic and directional beam, realized by means of a quantum dot embedded in a linearly polarized cavity. In our scheme, the cavity frequency is tuned to half the frequency of the biexciton (two excitons with opposite spins) and largely detuned from the excitons thanks to the large biexciton binding energy. We show how the emission can be Purcell enhanced by several orders of magnitude into the two-photon channel for available experimental systems.
The future of quantum communication systems and quantum networks heavily rely on the ability to fabricate and coherently control the conversion of photons between different modes based on a solid-state plateform. In this work, we propose and theoretically investigate a scheme to optomechanically control coherent mode conversion of optical photons by utilizing two optically coupled hybrid semiconductor microcavities containing a quantum dot (QD). One of the microcavity is pumped by an external laser and the second cavity is driven by light emitted by the QD that is embedded in the interface sep…
We exploit the nonlinearity arising from the spin-photon interaction in an InAs quantum dot to demonstrate phase shifts of scattered light pulses at the single-photon level. Photon phase shifts of close to 90 degrees are achieved using a charged quantum dot in a micropillar cavity. We also demonstrate a photon phase switch by using a spin-pumping mechanism through Raman transitions in an in-plane magnetic field. The experimental findings are supported by a theoretical model which explores the dynamics of the system. Our results demonstrate the potential of quantum dot-induced nonlinearities fo…
The Jaynes-Cummings model, describing the interaction between a single two-level system and a photonic mode, has been used to describe a large variety of systems, ranging from cavity quantum electrodynamics, trapped ions, to superconducting qubits coupled to resonators. Recently there has been renewed interest in studying the quantum strong-coupling (QSC) regime, where states with photon number greater than one are excited. This regime has been recently achieved in semiconductor nanostructures, where a quantum dot is trapped in a planar microcavity. Here we study the quantum strong-coupling re…
We theoretically explore optical bistability for possible signature of all optical switching and their performance in a hybrid quantum optomechanical system comprising of two semiconductor microcavity coupled optically. One of the cavity is driven by an external optical pump laser while the second cavity which contains a quantum dot is indirectly driven by light transmitted from the first cavity. The generated bistable behavior due to optomechanical nonlinearity shows a typical optical switching behavior and it can be controlled by changing the laser power, QD cavity coupling, rocking paramete…
A recent paper [Chuan Wang, Phys. Rev. A \textbf{86}, 012323 (2012)] discussed an entanglement concentration protocol (ECP) for partially entangled electrons using a quantum dot and microcavity coupled system. In his paper, each two-electron spin system in a partially entangled state can be concentrated with the assistance of an ancillary quantum dot and a single photon. In this paper, we will present an optimal ECP for such entangled electrons with the help of only one single photon. Compared with the protocol of Wang, the most significant advantage is that during the whole ECP, the single ph…
In this paper we introduce and analyze a new system design for quantum-dot-based qubits that simultaneously supports scalable one-qubit and two-qubit gates, and single-shot qubit measurement. All three key processes (one-qubit gates, two-qubit gates, and qubit measurement) rely on the interaction between the electron in each quantum dot and exciton-polaritons formed in a quantum well situated near the quantum dots. A key novel feature of our proposed system is the use of polariton traps, which we show enhances the quantum-dot--quantum-well interaction by a factor of 10 and consequently results…
We theoretically investigate optical bistability, mechanically induced absorption (MIA) and Fano resonance of a hybrid system comprising of a single quantum dot (QD) embedded in a solid state microcavity interacting with the quantized cavity mode and the deformation potential associated with the lattice vibration. We find that the bistability can be tuned by the QD-cavity mode coupling. We further show that the normalized power transmission displays anomalous dispersion indicating that the system can be used to generate slow light. We also demonstrate the possibility of using the system as all…
We have developed a microcavity single-photon source based on a single quantum dot within a planar cavity in which wet-oxidation of a high-aluminium content layer provides lateral confinement of both the photonic mode and the injection current. Lateral confinement of the optical mode in optically pumped structures produces a strong enhancement of the radiative decay rate. Using microcavity structures with doped contact layers, we demonstrate a single-photon emitting diode where current may be injected into a single dot.
We demonstrate a technique for achieving spectral resonance between a polarization-degenerate micropillar cavity mode and an embedded quantum dot transition. Our approach is based on a combination of isotropic and anisotropic tensile strain effected by laser-induced surface defects, thereby providing permanent tuning. Such a technique is a prerequisite for the implementation of scalable quantum information schemes based on solid-state cavity quantum electrodynamics.
We investigate the resonant quantum dynamics of a multi-qubit ensemble in a microcavity. Both the quantum-dot subsystem and the microcavity mode are pumped coherently. We found that the microcavity photon statistics depends on the phase difference of the driving lasers which is not the case for the photon intensity at resonant driving. This way, one can manipulate the two-photon correlations. In particular, higher degrees of photon correlations and, eventually, stronger intensities are obtained. Furthermore, the microcavity photon statistics exhibits steady-state oscillatory behaviors as well …
We present a scheme for efficient state teleportation and entanglement swapping using a single quantum-dot spin in an optical microcavity based on giant circular birefringence. State teleportation or entanglement swapping is heralded by the sequential detection of two photons, and is finished after the spin measurement. The spin-cavity unit works as a complete Bell-state analyzer with a built-in spin memory allowing loss-resistant repeater operation. This device can work in both the weak coupling and the strong coupling regime, but high efficiencies and high fidelities are only achievable when…
Semiconductor quantum-dot cavity systems are promising sources for solid-state based on-demand generation of single photons for quantum communication. Commonly, the spectral characteristics of the emitted single photon are fixed by system properties such as electronic transition energies and spectral properties of the cavity. In the present work we study single-photon generation from the quantum-dot biexciton through a partly stimulated non-degenerate two-photon emission. We show that frequency and linewidth of the single photon can be fully controlled by the stimulating laser pulse, ultimatel…
We propose a scheme to realize a highly efficient solid state source of photon pairs using cavity-assisted stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) in a single quantum dot, where a single photon from pump pulse and two stokes photons from cavity mode drives the Raman transition. The Autler-Townes doublet, generated by using a resonant continuous wave laser between biexciton and exciton states, and two-photon-resonant transition through strongly coupled cavity mode are utilized to facilitate (1+2)type Raman transition in the quantum dot. We show in the case of weak pump although the probabil…
We describe a proposal for fast electron spin initialization in a negatively charged quantum dot coupled to a microcavity without the need for a strong magnetic field. We employ two-photon excitation to access trion states that are spin forbidden by one-photon excitation. Our simulation shows a maximum initialization speed of 1.3 GHz and maximum fidelity of 99.7% with realistic system parameters.
We present an oxide aperture microcavity with embedded quantum dots that utilizes a three contact design to independently tune the quantum dot wavelength and birefringence of the cavity modes. A polarization splitting tuning of $\sim$5 GHz is observed. For typical microcavity polarization splittings, the method can be used to achieve perfect polarization degeneracy that is required for many polarization-based implementations of photonic quantum gates. The embedded quantum dot wavelength can be tuned into resonance with the cavity, independent of the polarization tuning.
Bright single photon emission from single quantum dots in suspended circular Bragg grating microcavities is demonstrated. This geometry has been designed to achieve efficient (> 50 %) single photon extraction into a near-Gaussian shaped far-field pattern, modest (~10x) Purcell enhancement of the radiative rate, and a spectral bandwidth of a few nanometers. Measurements of fabricated devices show progress towards these goals, with collection efficiencies as high as ~10% demonstrated with moderate spectral bandwidth and rate enhancement. Photon correlation measurements are performed under above-…
We present a physical scheme for implementing quantum phase estimation via weakly coupled double quantum-dot molecules embedded in a microcavity. During the same process of implementation, we can also realize the calibration of a timepiece based on the estimated phase. We use the electron-hole pair states in coupled double quantum-dot molecules to encode quantum information, where the requirement that two quantum dots are exactly identical is not necessary. Our idea can also be generalized to other systems, such as atomic, trapped ion and linear optics system.
In nanostructures, the light-matter interaction can be engineered to be chiral. In the fully quantum regime, a chiral one-dimensional atom, a photon propagating in one direction interacts with the atom; a photon propagating in the other direction does not. Chiral quantum optics has applications in creating nanoscopic single-photon routers, circulators, phase-shifters and two-photon gates. Furthermore, the directional photon-exchange between many emitters in a chiral system may enable the creation of highly exotic quantum states. Here, we present a new way of implementing chiral quantum optics …
Quasi-transverse-electric and -transverse-magnetic fundamental whispering gallery modes in a polymer-coated silica microtoroid are theoretically investigated and demonstrated to possess very high-quality factors. The existence of a nanometer-thickness layer not only evidently reduces the cavity mode volume but also draws the maximal electric field's position of the mode to the outside of the silica toroid, where single quantum dots or nanocrystals are located. Both effects result in a strongly enhanced coherent interaction between a single dipole (for example, a single defect center in a diamo…
Controlled non-local energy and coherence transfer enables light harvesting in photosynthesis and non-local logical operations in quantum computing. The most relevant mechanism of coherent coupling of distant qubits is coupling via the electromagnetic field. Here, we demonstrate the controlled coherent coupling of spatially separated excitonic qubits via the photon mode of a solid state microresonator. This is revealed by two-dimensional spectroscopy of the sample's coherent response, a sensitive and selective probe of the coherent coupling. The experimental results are quantitatively describe…
Universal set of quantum gates are realized from the conduction-band electron spin qubits of quantum dots embedded in a microcavity via two-channel Raman interaction. All of the gate operations are independent of the cavity mode states, \emph{i.e.}, insensitive to the thermal cavity field. Individual addressing and effective switch of the cavity mediated interaction are directly possible here. Meanwhile, gate operations also can be carried out in parallel. The simple realization of needed interaction for selective qubits makes current scenario more suitable for scalable quantum computation.
We present a method to enact a deterministic, measurement-free, optically generated controlled-phase gate on two qubits defined by single electrons trapped in large-area quantum dots in a planar microcavity. This method is robust to optical quantum dot inhomogeneity, requires only a modest-$Q$ planar cavity, employs only a single laser pulse, and allows the integration of many entangled qubits on one semiconductor chip. We present the gate in the contexts of both adiabatic evolution and geometric phases, and calculate the degradation of performance in the presence of both spontaneous emission …
We propose a theoretical model which describes the coupling between quantum dots ensemble and optical microcavity. By this model we simulate the interaction of the system with the strain pulse which can strongly modify the lasing of QDs.
A theory of entangled photons emission from quantum dot in microcavity under continuous and pulsed incoherent pumping is presented. It is shown that the time-resolved two-photon correlations drastically depend on the pumping mechanism: the continuous pumping quenches the polarization entanglement and strongly suppresses photon correlation times. Analytical theory of the effect is presented.
