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arXiv:0706.4155 · Physical Review Letters

Phonon-Assisted Decoherence in the Production of Polarization-Entangled Photons in a Single Semiconductor Quantum Dot

Ulrich Hohenester, G. Pfanner, Marek Seliger

Published Jul 24, 2007• 50 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the production of polarization-entangled photons through the biexciton cascade decay in a single semiconductor quantum dot. In the intermediate state the entanglement is encoded in the polarizations of the first emitted photon and the exciton, where the exciton state can be effectively "measured" by the solid-state environment through the formation of a lattice distortion. We show that the resulting loss of entanglement becomes drastically enhanced if the phonons contributing to the lattice distortion are subject to elastic scatterings at the device boundaries, which might constitute a serious limitation for quantum-dot based entangled-photon devices.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.99.047402

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We theoretically investigate the production of polarization-entangled photons through the biexciton cascade decay in a single semiconductor quantum dot. In the intermediate state the entanglement is encoded in the polarizations of the first emitted photon and the exciton, where the exciton state can be effectively "measured" by the solid-state environment through the formation of a lattice distortion. We show that the resulting loss of entanglement becomes drastically enhanced if the phonons contributing to the lattice distortion are subject to elastic scatterings at the device boundaries, which might constitute a serious limitation for quantum-dot based entangled-photon devices.
We theoretically investigate the production of polarization-entangled photons through the biexciton cascade decay in a single semiconductor quantum dot. To accomplish a high degree of entanglement, despite the exciton fine-structure splitting, one must either energetically align the two exciton states by means of external fields or erase the which-path information by postselection or time reordering of photons. Here we show that in the latter schemes the photon state becomes deteriorated through dephasing processes in the solid, and the degree of entanglement remains low.
Abstract We theoretically investigate the production of polarization‐entangled photons through the biexciton cascade decay in a single semiconductor quantum dot. A biexciton radiatively decays through two intermediate exciton states, where polarization‐entangled photons are emitted if the two decay paths differ in polarization but are indistinguishable otherwise. This ideal performance is usually spoiled by the electron–hole exchange interaction splitting the intermediate exciton states by a small amount and consequently attaching a which‐path information to the photon frequencies. We discuss post‐selection schemes to mask this which‐path information to an outside observer. We show how spectral filtering and time shifts at a single photon level affect the photon state. Here the solid state environment plays a crucial role in the effective measurement of intermediate exciton states. Evaluating our analytical results with realistic quantum dot parameters we quantify the applicability of suggested protocols for solid‐state based quantum cryptography. Our results indicate, that a high degree of entanglement is only reached by spectral alignment of the exciton states. (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
We theoretically investigate the production of polarization-entangled photons through the biexciton cascade decay in a single semiconductor quantum dot. To accomplish a high degree of entanglement, despite the exciton finestructure splitting, one must either energetically align the two exciton states by means of external fields or erase the which-path information by post-selecting photons within the correct frequency range. Here we show that in the latter scheme, as well as in related proposals, the photon state becomes deteriorated through dephasing processes in the solid, and the degree of entanglement remains low despite filtering.
Semiconductor quantum dots are promising sources for polarization-entangled photons. As an alternative to the usual cascaded biexciton-exciton emission, direct two-photon emission from the biexciton can be used. With a high-quality optical resonator tuned to half the biexciton energy, a large proportion of the photons can be steered into the two-photon emission channel. In this case the degree of polarization entanglement is inherently insensitive to the exciton fine-structure splitting. In the present work we analyze the biexciton emission with particular emphasis on the influence of coupling of the quantum-dot cavity system to its environment. Especially for a high-quality cavity, the coupling to the surrounding semiconductor material can open up additional phonon-assisted decay channels. Our analysis demonstrates that with the cavity tuned to half the biexciton energy, the potentially detrimental influence of the phonons on the polarization entanglement is strongly suppressed---high degrees of entanglement can still be achieved. We further discuss spectral properties and statistics of the emitted twin photons.
Polarization correlation in a linear basis, but not entanglement, is observed between the biexciton and single-exciton photons emitted by a single InAs quantum dot in a two-photon cascade. The results are well described quantitatively by a probabilistic model that includes two decay paths for a biexciton through a nondegenerate pair of one-exciton states, with the polarization of the emitted photons depending on the decay path. The results show that spin nondegeneracy due to quantum-dot asymmetry is a significant obstacle to the realization of an entangled-photon generation device.
We compute the concurrence of the polarization-entangled photon pairs generated by the biexciton cascade decay of a semiconductor quantum dot. We show how a cavity-induced increase of the photon emission rate reduces the effect of dot dephasing and excitonic fine structure on the concurrence. However, strong dot-cavity couplings, as well as low detection efficiencies, increase the detrimental effect of multiple cascades. This affects the merits of the entangled photon-pair source, beyond what is estimated by quantum tomography.