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arXiv:1605.01255 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

All-optical tailoring of single-photon spectra in a quantum-dot microcavity system

Dominik Breddermann, Dirk Heinze, Rolf H. Binder, A. Zrenner, Stefan Schumacher

Published Oct 24, 2016• 7 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

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 cavity-enhanced single-photon generation from the quantum-dot biexciton through a partly stimulated nondegenerate two-photon emission. We show that frequency and linewidth of the single photon can be fully controlled by the stimulating laser pulse, ultimately allowing for efficient all-optical spectral shaping of the single photon.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.94.165310

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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 cavity-enhanced single-photon generation from the quantum-dot biexciton through a partly stimulated nondegenerate two-photon emission. We show that frequency and linewidth of the single photon can be fully controlled by the stimulating laser pulse, ultimately allowing for efficient all-optical spectral shaping of the single photon.
We propose two schemes to realize a highly efficient solid-state source of photon pairs using four-wave mixing and stimulated Raman adiabatic passage in a single quantum dot embedded in a microcavity. A resonant continuous-wave laser applied between biexciton and exciton states and a pulsed laser applied between a ground state and exciton state are utilized to facilitate coherent pumping. We show in the case of four-wave mixing that, although the probability of generating two photons in a cavity mode is small without cavity damping, two-photon-resonant emission is enhanced by cavity damping within the strong-coupling regime. For strong continuous-wave laser, a single photon from a pulsed laser and two-photon-resonant transition through a strongly coupled cavity mode lead to a (1+2)-type Raman transition through the generated Autler-Townes doublet. We also discuss the spectrum of the generated photon pair and the photon-photon correlations in the generated photon pair.
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.
Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) coupled with optical microcavities provide an excellent platform for generating high-performance single-photon sources. However, the current microcavity structures are difficult to solve the tradeoff between single-photon purity and indistinguishability without additional filtering, due to challenges in suppressing broad phonon sideband spectrum and two-photon emission in the practical experiments. To address these issues, we have developed a novel asymmetric microcavity that supports two nondegenerate polarized modes, both resonant with a single quantum dot. One cavity mode is broadband and is used for excitation to reduce two-photon emission intensity, while the other is narrowband and is used for collection to enhance the indistinguishability of single-photon sources. This asymmetric microcavity also has the ability to overcome at least half of the photon efficiency loss under polarization filtering. Moreover, our model has employed an excitation pulse that resonates with cavity modes eliminating spectral distortion of intracavity fields, and efficiently achieving deterministic population inversion of QDs compared to an elliptical cavity. Our scheme paves the way to develop the excellent performance single-photon sources with higher brightness, near-unity purity, and indistinguishability without any additional filtering in practical experiments.
We theoretically demonstrate the phonon-assisted control of the single-photon spectral characteristics such as central frequency and linewidth in a semiconductor quantum dot coupled to a pillar microcavity using a single laser pulse as both excitation and control. We derive the relevant optical Bloch equations from the suitable polaron master equation for taking into account the effects of phonons accurately. We show that with the appropriately chosen parameters of the exciting laser pulse (pump pulse) and cavity, the central frequency and linewidth of the single photon can be controlled simply by controlling the frequency and pulse width of the exciting laser pulse, respectively. Subsequently, we show that these are essentially the phonon-induced processes which ensure that the probability of single-photon emission does not change significantly with the variation of the frequency and pulse width of the exciting laser pulse. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the polarization of the single photon can also be controlled by adjusting the polarization of the pump pulse.
We propose and characterize a two-photon (2P) source that emits in a highly polarized, 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 2P channel for available experimental systems.
Much recent effort has focused on coupling individual quantum emitters to optical microcavities in order to produce single photons on demand, enable single-photon optical switching, and implement functional nodes of a quantum network. Techniques to control the bandwidth and frequency of the outgoing single photons are of practical importance, allowing direct emission into telecommunications wavelengths and "hybrid" quantum networks incorporating different emitters. Here, we describe an integrated approach involving a quantum emitter coupled to a nonlinear optical resonator, in which the emission wavelength and pulse shape are controlled using the intra-cavity nonlinearity. Our scheme is general in nature, and demonstrates how the photonic environment of a quantum emitter can be tailored to determine the emission properties. As specific examples, we discuss a high Q-factor, TE-TM double-mode photonic crystal cavity design that allows for direct generation of single photons at telecom wavelengths (1425 nm) starting from an InAs/GaAs quantum dot with a 950 nm transition wavelength, and a scheme for direct optical coupling between such a quantum dot and a diamond nitrogen-vacancy center at 637 nm.