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arXiv:1601.01667 · Optica

Indistinguishable single photons with flexible electronic triggering

Adetunmise C. Dada, Ted Silva Santana, Ralph N. E. Malein, Antonios Koutroumanis, Yong Ma, Joanna M. Zajac, Ju Young Lim, Jin Dong Song, Brian D. Gerardot

Published May 5, 2016• 31 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

A key ingredient for quantum photonic technologies is an on-demand source of indistinguishable single photons. State-of-the-art indistinguishable single-photon sources typically employ resonant excitation pulses with fixed repetition rates, creating a string of single photons with predetermined arrival times. However, in future applications, an independent electronic signal from a larger quantum circuit or network will trigger the generation of an indistinguishable photon. Further, operating the photon source up to the limit imposed by its lifetime is desirable. Here, we report on the application of a true on-demand approach in which we can electronically trigger the precise arrival time of a single photon as well as control the excitation pulse duration based on resonance fluorescence from a single InAs/GaAs quantum dot. We investigate in detail the effect of the finite duration of an excitation $π$ pulse on the degree of photon antibunching. Finally, we demonstrate that highly indistinguishable single photons can be generated using this on-demand approach, enabling maximum flexibility for future applications.

DOI
10.1364/optica.3.000493

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A key ingredient for quantum photonic technologies is an on-demand source of indistinguishable single photons. State-of-the-art indistinguishable single-photon sources typically employ resonant excitation pulses with fixed repetition rates, creating a string of single photons with predetermined arrival times. However, in future applications, an independent electronic signal from a larger quantum circuit or network will trigger the generation of an indistinguishable photon. Further, operating the photon source up to the limit imposed by its lifetime is desirable. Here, we report on the application of a true on-demand approach in which we can electronically trigger the precise arrival time of a single photon as well as control the excitation pulse duration based on resonance fluorescence from a single InAs/GaAs quantum dot. We investigate in detail the effect of the finite duration of an excitation πππ pulse on the degree of photon antibunching. Finally, we demonstrate that highly indistinguishable single photons can be generated using this on-demand approach, enabling maximum flexibility for future applications.
A key ingredient for quantum photonic technologies is an on-demand source of indistinguishable single photons. State-of-the-art indistinguishable-single-photon sources typically employ resonant excitation pulses with fixed repetition rates, creating a string of single photons with predetermined arrival times. However, in future applications, an independent electronic signal from a larger quantum circuit or network will trigger the generation of an indistinguishable photon. Further, operating the photon source up to the limit imposed by its lifetime is desirable. Here we report on the application of a true on-demand approach in which we can electronically trigger the precise arrival time of a single photon as well as control the excitation pulse duration. We investigate in detail the effect of finite duration of an excitation π\piπ pulse on the degree of photon antibunching. Finally, we demonstrate that highly indistinguishable single photons can be generated using this on-demand approach, enabling maximum flexibility for future applications.
Photonic quantum technologies call for scalable quantum light sources that can be integrated, while providing the end user with single and entangled photons on demand. One promising candidate is strain free GaAs/AlGaAs quantum dots obtained by aluminum droplet etching. Such quantum dots exhibit ultra low multi-photon probability and an unprecedented degree of photon pair entanglement. However, different to commonly studied InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots obtained by the Stranski-Krastanow mode, photons with a near-unity indistinguishability from these quantum emitters have proven to be elusive so far. Here, we show on-demand generation of near-unity indistinguishable photons from these quantum emitters by exploring pulsed resonance fluorescence. Given the short intrinsic lifetime of excitons and trions confined in the GaAs quantum dots, we show single photon indistinguishability with a raw visibility of [Formula: see text], without the need for Purcell enhancement. Our results represent a milestone in the advance of GaAs quantum dots by demonstrating the final missing property standing in the way of using these emitters as a key component in quantum communication applications, e.g., as quantum light sources for quantum repeater architectures.
Scalable photonic quantum technologies require on-demand single-photon sources with simultaneously high levels of purity, indistinguishability, and efficiency. These key features, however, have only been demonstrated separately in previous experiments. Here, by s-shell pulsed resonant excitation of a Purcell-enhanced quantum dot-micropillar system, we deterministically generate resonance fluorescence single photons which, at π pulse excitation, have an extraction efficiency of 66%, single-photon purity of 99.1%, and photon indistinguishability of 98.5%. Such a single-photon source for the first time combines the features of high efficiency and near-perfect levels of purity and indistinguishabilty, and thus opens the way to multiphoton experiments with semiconductor quantum dots.
A deterministic "on demand" source of single photons is a basic building block for linear quantum computation \cite{linear}, quantum cryptography \cite{crypto}, quantum teleportation \cite{teleport}, and quantum networks \cite{network}. In all these applications, quantum interference between two single-photon pulses on a symmetric beam splitter has been exploited \cite{review}, which imposes stringent requirement for the implemented single photons to be indistinguishable in all degrees of freedom, including their frequencies, spectral widths, pulse shapes, and polarizations. To generate single photons one requires a pumping mechanism to excite a "two-level emitter" and an efficient channeling of the subsequently emitted photons. The efficiency of the source can be enhanced by coupling the emitter to the waveguide \cite{manga} or a microcavity mode \cite{cklaw}. However, hitherto the solid-state single photon sources realized by using a quantum dot coupled with a microcavity rely on incoherent pumping of excitons, which leads to problems with timing jitter \cite{kiraz}, leading to a trade off between efficiency and indistinguishability. Here we introduce a means to realize a highly efficient solid state source of indistinguishable single photons using cavity-assisted adiabatic Raman passage in a single quantum dot - cavity system. We demonstrate pulse-triggered single photons with 100% efficiency and >90>90>90% indistinguishability using currently available experimental parameters.
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).
Integrated single photon sources are key building blocks for realizing scalable devices for quantum information processing. For such applications highly coherent and indistinguishable single photons on a chip are required. Here we report on a triggered resonance fluorescence single photon source based on In(Ga)As/GaAs quantum dots coupled to single- and multimode ridge waveguides. We demonstrate the generation of highly linearly polarized resonance fluorescence photons with 99.1% (96.0%) single photon purity and 97.5% (95.0%) indistinguishability in case of multimode (single mode) waveguide devices fulfilling the strict requirements imposed by multi-interferometric quantum optics applications. Our integrated triggered single photon source can be readily scaled up, promising a realistic pathway for on-chip linear optical quantum simulation, quantum computation, and quantum networks.