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arXiv:0902.3612 · Physical Review Letters

Post-Selected Indistinguishable Photons from the Resonance Fluorescence of a Single Quantum Dot in a Microcavity

Serkan Ateş, Sven M. Ulrich, Stephan Reitzenstein, A. Löffler, A. Forchel, Peter Michler

Published Oct 16, 2009• 265 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Applying continuous-wave pure resonant s-shell optical excitation of individual quantum dots in a high-quality micropillar cavity, we demonstrate the generation of post-selected indistinguishable photons in resonance fluorescence. Close to ideal visibility contrast of 90% is verified by polarization-dependent Hong-Ou-Mandel two-photon interference measurements. Furthermore, a strictly resonant continuous-wave excitation together with controlling the spontaneous emission lifetime of the single quantum dots via tunable emitter-mode coupling (Purcell) is proven as a versatile scheme to generate close to Fourier transform-limited (T2/(2T1)=0.91) single photons even at 80% of the emission saturation level.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.103.167402

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Applying continuous-wave pure resonant s-shell optical excitation of individual quantum dots in a high-quality micropillar cavity, we demonstrate the generation of post-selected indistinguishable photons in resonance fluorescence. Close to ideal visibility contrast of 90% is verified by polarization-dependent Hong-Ou-Mandel two-photon interference measurements. Furthermore, a strictly resonant continuous-wave excitation together with controlling the spontaneous emission lifetime of the single quantum dots via tunable emitter-mode coupling (Purcell) is proven as a versatile scheme to generate close to Fourier transform-limited (T2/(2T1)=0.91) single photons even at 80% of the emission saturation level.
By pulsed s-shell resonant excitation of a single quantum dot-micropillar system, we generate long streams of 1000 near-transform-limited single photons with high mutual indistinguishability. The Hong-Ou-Mandel interference of two photons is measured as a function of their emission time separation varying from 13 ns to 14.7 μs, where the visibility slightly drops from 95.9(2)% to a plateau of 92.1(5)% through a slow dephasing process occurring at a time scale of 0.7 μs. A temporal and spectral analysis reveals the pulsed resonance fluorescence single photons are close to the transform limit, which are readily useful for multiphoton entanglement and interferometry experiments.
We report on two-photon interference of highly indistinguishable single photons emitted by a quantum dot. Strictly resonant excitation with picosecond laser pulses has been used to prepare coherent states with a significantly increased coherence time $({T}_{2}\ensuremath{\sim}1\text{ns})$ and reduced lifetime $({T}_{1}\ensuremath{\sim}650\text{ps})$, as compared to a nonresonant excitation scheme. Indistinguishable photons, with visibilities greater than 70%, have been observed by measuring the Hong-Ou-Mandel dip without postselection of the interfering photons. Near-unity indistinguishable photons should be achievable by preventing fluctuations in the electrostatic environment in the vicinity of the dots, considered as an important source of decoherence.
Resonant laser excitation of a two-level system with subsequent single-photon emission can be used to generate single photons with high indistinguishability or Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) visibility. However, spectral overlap between excitation laser and emitted photons generally poses significant challenges. Furthermore, emitter re-excitation intrinsically limits achievable single-photon purity. Established solutions mitigate these issues at significant cost to source efficiency and with increased source complexity. This motivates the use of few-level systems with spectral separation of excitation and emission pathways. One option is a three-level cascade. However, without targeted lifetime engineering of emitting states, the cascade naturally limits achievable photon indistinguishability. Here we study a semiconductor quantum dot with resonant and selective cavity-enhancement of biexciton-to-exciton transition. Following resonant two-photon excitation of the biexciton state, we collect the emitted single photon with the cavity. This approach circumvents emitter re-excitation and naturally introduces spectral separation of excitation laser and emitted single photon. Supported by first experimental results, we demonstrate theoretically that with selective Purcell enhancement, the observed quality quantifiers of single-photon emission (purity, equivalently g(2)(0)g^{(2)}(0)g(2)(0), and HOM visibility V\mathcal{V}V, equivalently indistinguishability) are competitive with respect to high-quality deterministic quantum-dot single-photon sources. This is already achieved without systematic optimization or targeted system engineering, which firmly places the reported approach as a viable route to the next generation of highest-quality quantum-dot based deterministic single-photon sources.
Applying high-power continuous-wave resonant sss-shell excitation to a single self-assembled InGaAs quantum dot, we demonstrate the generation of postselected single-indistinguishable photons from the Mollow triplet sidebands. A sophisticated spatial filtering technique based on a double Michelson interferometer enabled us to separate the spectrally close lying individual Mollow components and perform almost background-free two-photon interference measurements. Showing high consistency with the results of an independent determination of the emission coherence of $\ensuremath{\sim}$$250\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}30$ ps, our analysis reveals a close to ideal visibility contrast of up to 9797%97. Due to their easy spectral tunability and their distinct advantage of cascaded-photon emission between the individual Mollow sidebands, they resemble a versatile tool for quantum information applications.
This Letter reports all-optically tunable and highly indistinguishable single Raman photons from a driven single quantum dot spin. The frequency, linewidth, and lifetime of the Raman photons are tunable by varying the driving field power and detuning. Under continuous-wave excitation, subnatural linewidth single photons from off-resonant Raman scattering show an indistinguishability of 0.98(3). Under π pulse excitation, spin- and time-tagged Raman fluorescence photons show an almost vanishing multiphoton emission probability of 0.01(2) and a two-photon quantum interference visibility of 0.95(3). Lastly, Hong-Ou-Mandel interference is demonstrated between two single photons emitted from remote, independent quantum dots with an unprecedented visibility of 0.87(4).