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arXiv:1506.05705 · Physical Review Letters

Single-Photon Superradiance from a Quantum Dot

Petru Tighineanu, Raphaël S. Daveau, Tau Bernstorff Lehmann, Harvey E. Beere, D. A. Ritchie, Peter Lodahl, Søren Stobbe

Published Apr 21, 2016• 80 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We report on the observation of single-photon superradiance from an exciton in a semiconductor quantum dot. The confinement by the quantum dot is strong enough for it to mimic a two-level atom, yet sufficiently weak to ensure superradiance. The electrostatic interaction between the electron and the hole comprising the exciton gives rise to an anharmonic spectrum, which we exploit to prepare the superradiant quantum state deterministically with a laser pulse. We observe a fivefold enhancement of the oscillator strength compared to conventional quantum dots. The enhancement is limited by the base temperature of our cryostat and may lead to oscillator strengths above 1000 from a single quantum emitter at optical frequencies.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.116.163604

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We report on the observation of single-photon superradiance from an exciton in a semiconductor quantum dot. The confinement by the quantum dot is strong enough for it to mimic a two-level atom, yet sufficiently weak to ensure superradiance. The electrostatic interaction between the electron and the hole comprising the exciton gives rise to an anharmonic spectrum, which we exploit to prepare the superradiant quantum state deterministically with a laser pulse. We observe a fivefold enhancement of the oscillator strength compared to conventional quantum dots. The enhancement is limited by the base temperature of our cryostat and may lead to oscillator strengths above 1000 from a single quantum emitter at optical frequencies.
Enhancing the interaction between quantum emitters and light is an ongoing quest in quantum physics. The realization of efficient photonic nanostructures has led to remarkable progress in manipulating single quanta of light and matter [1]. Here we demonstrate another approach to enhancing light-matter interaction [2], single-photon superradiance (SPS), which is achieved by storing a single quantum of energy in the collective state of a weakly confining quantum dot. The superradiant state is prepared deterministically with a single laser pulse and leads to the generation of a single photon with near-unity probability. Our work emphasizes the extraordinary potential of weakly confining quantum dots for improving the radiative efficiency, coherence, and quantum nonlinearities of single-photon sources that may readily be embedded in nanophotonic quantum devices.
The strong confinement of semiconductor excitons in a quantum dot gives rise to atomlike behavior. The full benefit of such a structure is best observed in resonant excitation where the excited state can be deterministically populated and coherently manipulated. Because of the large refractive index and device geometry it remains challenging to observe resonantly excited emission that is free from laser scattering in III/V self-assembled quantum dots. Here we exploit the biexciton binding energy to create an extremely clean single photon source via two-photon resonant excitation of an InAs/GaAs quantum dot. We observe complete suppression of the excitation laser and multiphoton emissions. Additionally, we perform full coherent control of the ground-biexciton state qubit and observe an extended coherence time using an all-optical echo technique. The deterministic coherent photon pair creation makes this system suitable for the generation of time-bin entanglement and experiments on the interaction of photons from dissimilar sources.
Single photon superradiance is a strong enhancement of spontaneous emission appearing when a single excitation is shared between a large number of two-level systems. This enhanced rate can be accompanied by a shift of the emission frequency, the cooperative Lamb shift, issued from the exchange of virtual photons between the emitters. In this work we present a semiconductor optoelectronic device allowing the observation of these two phenomena at room temperature. We demonstrate experimentally and theoretically that plasma oscillations in spatially separated quantum wells interact through real and virtual photon exchange. This gives rise to a superradiant mode displaying a large cooperative Lamb shift.
Superradiance is one of the many fascinating phenomena predicted by quantum electrodynamics that have first been experimentally demonstrated in atomic systems and more recently in condensed matter systems like quantum dots, superconducting q-bits, cyclotron transitions and plasma oscillations in quantum wells (QWs). It occurs when a dense collection of N identical two-level emitters are phased via the exchange of photons, giving rise to enhanced light-matter interaction, hence to a faster emission rate. Of great interest is the regime where the ensemble interacts with one photon only and therefore all of the atoms, but one, are in the ground state. In this case the quantum superposition of all possible configurations produces a symmetric state that decays radiatively with a rate N times larger than that of the individual oscillators. This phenomenon, called single photon superradiance, results from the exchange of real photons among the N emitters. Yet, to single photon superradiance is also associated another collective effect that renormalizes the emission frequency, known as cooperative Lamb shift. In this work, we show that single photon superradiance and cooperative Lamb shift can be engineered in a semiconductor device by coupling spatially separated plasma resonances arising from the collective motion of confined electrons in QWs. These resonances hold a giant dipole along the growth direction z and have no mutual Coulomb coupling. They thus behave as a collection of macro-atoms on different positions along the z axis. Our device is therefore a test bench to simulate the low excitation regime of quantum electrodynamics.
Single semiconductor quantum dots, which are considered as two-level systems in the artificial atom model, are promising structures for the realization of integrated devices such as single photon sources for quantum information applications. However, contrary to genuine atoms, they are condensed matter systems which suffer from the coupling to their solid environment, leading to a degradation of the coherence of the emitted photons. One possibility to avoid this coupling, thereby improving the coherence of the photons until the one imposed by the radiative limit T2 = 2T1, is to perform strictly resonant excitation of a quantum dot at low temperature. Using an experimental setup that spatially decouples the excitation and detection paths, we showed that a fine control of the electrostatic environment related to the nanostructures residual doping remains a major challenge to answer the widely encountered problem of the inhibition of the resonance fluorescence of a quantum dot. Meanwhile, thanks to quantum optics experiments and high resolution optical spectroscopy, we demonstrated that the resonant Rayleigh scattering regime where quantum dots emit single photons with the laser coherence time, paves the way to the development of "ultra-coherent" sources of single photons with high degrees of indistinguishability. In this regime where the laser tailors the coherence of the photons and where the radiative limit becomes a secondary requirement, two photons emitted successively by the same quantum dot are indistinguishable on time scales never obtained before for a solid nano-emitter (up to ten nanoseconds, comparing to the carriers lifetime and decoherence time of about a hundred of picoseconds).
Transient nonlinear optical spectroscopy, performed on excitons confined to single GaAs quantum dots, shows oscillations that are analogous to Rabi oscillations in two-level atomic systems. This demonstration corresponds to a one-qubit rotation in a single quantum dot which is important for proposals using quantum dot excitons for quantum computing. The dipole moment inferred from the data is consistent with that directly obtained from linear absorption studies. The measurement extends the artificial atom model of quantum dot excitonic transitions into the strong-field limit, and makes possible full coherent optical control of the quantum state of single excitons using optical pi pulses.