Resonance fluorescence from a telecom-wavelength quantum dot
Rima Al-Khuzheyri, Adetunmise C. Dada, Jan Huwer, Ted Silva Santana, J. Skiba-Szymanska, M. Felle, M. B. Ward, R. M. Stevenson, Ian A. Farrer, Michael G. Tanner, Robert H. Hadfield, D. A. Ritchie, Andrew J. Shields, Brian D. Gerardot
We report on resonance fluorescence from a single quantum dot emitting at telecom wavelengths. We perform high-resolution spectroscopy and observe the Mollow triplet in the Rabi regime—a hallmark of resonance fluorescence. The measured resonance-fluorescence spectra allow us to rule out pure dephasing as a significant decoherence mechanism in these quantum dots. Combined with numerical simulations, the experimental results provide robust characterisation of charge noise in the environment of the quantum dot. Resonant control of the quantum dot opens up new possibilities for the on-demand generation of indistinguishable single photons at telecom wavelengths as well as quantum optics experiments and direct manipulation of solid-state qubits in telecom-wavelength quantum dots.
We report on resonance fluorescence from a single quantum dot emitting at telecom wavelengths. We perform high-resolution spectroscopy and observe the Mollow triplet in the Rabi regime—a hallmark of resonance fluorescence. The measured resonance-fluorescence spectra allow us to rule out pure dephasing as a significant decoherence mechanism in these quantum dots. Combined with numerical simulations, the experimental results provide robust characterisation of charge noise in the environment of the quantum dot. Resonant control of the quantum dot opens up new possibilities for the on-demand generation of indistinguishable single photons at telecom wavelengths as well as quantum optics experiments and direct manipulation of solid-state qubits in telecom-wavelength quantum dots.
An emission wavelength around 1550 nm (telecom C-band) is highly appealing for nonclassical light sources, among others, due to the absorption minimum in standard glass fibers. In particular, semiconductor quantum dots at this wavelength promise to provide the outstanding results achieved with this emitter type in the near-infrared spectral region. Here, we study resonance fluorescence from InAs/GaAs quantum dots emitting in the telecom C-band under continuous wave and pulsed excitation. For the prior case, the quantum dot is excited in the strong driving regime and the characteristic Mollow triplet is observed allowing to draw conclusions on the nature and quantitative influence of different decoherence mechanisms on the emission. Furthermore, under pulsed excitation, highly pure single-photon emission (g(2)(0)=0.023 ± 0.019) is demonstrated and a measurement of the photon indistinguishability (VTPI=0.144 ± 0.015; full width at half maximum of the time window for post-selection of (305 ± 33)ps with an associated maximally attainable value VTPI,p=0.955) is presented. In the process of making the emission properties of telecom quantum dots comparable to their well-established counterparts emitting in the near-infrared spectral region, these results represent a benchmark and provide valuable information for future optimization of sample structures.
We report on the resonance fluorescence (RF) from single InAs quantum dots (QDs) emitting at the telecom band of 1300 nm. The InAs/GaAs QDs are embedded in a planar optical microcavity and the RF is measured by an orthogonal excitation-detection geometry for deeply suppressing the residual laser scattering. An ultra-weak He–Ne laser is necessary to be used as a gate laser for obtaining RF. Rabi oscillation with more than one period is observed through the picosecond (ps) pulsed laser excitation. The resonant control of exciton opens up new possibilities for realizing the on-demand single photon emission and quantum manipulation of solid-state qubits at telecom band.
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).
Two experiments observe the so-called Mollow triplet in the emission spectrum of a quantum dot—originating from resonantly driving a dot transition—and demonstrate the potential of these systems to act as single-photon sources, and as a readout modality for electron-spin states. Single-quantum emitters emit only one photon at a time1,2, but the properties of the photon depend on how the emitter is excited3. Incoherent excitation is simple and broadly used with solid-state emitters such as quantum dots, but does not allow direct manipulation of the quantum state. Coherent, resonant excitation on the other hand is used in pump–probe techniques to examine the quantum state of the emitter4, but does not permit collection of the single-photon emission. Coherent control with simultaneous generation of photons has been an elusive goal in solid-state approaches, where, because of strong laser scattering at the detection wavelength, measurement of resonant emission has been limited to cross-polarized detection5 or Stokes-shift techniques6,7. Here we demonstrate that a semiconductor quantum dot in a microcavity can be resonantly driven and its single-photon emission extracted background free. Under strong continuous-wave excitation, the dot undergoes several Rabi oscillations before emitting, which are visible as oscillations in the second-order correlation function. The quantum-dot states are therefore ‘dressed’, resulting in a Mollow-triplet emission spectrum. Such coherent control will be necessary for future high-efficiency sources of indistinguishable single photons3,8, which can be used for quantum key distribution9 or through post-selection10 to generate entangled photon pairs11,12.
Quantum optics provides a fundamental framework for understanding the interaction between light and matter at the quantum level. Recently, it has been shown that under incoherent pumping, the resonance fluorescence spectrum dramatically changes. Engineering the resonance fluorescence spectrum paves the way towards solid-state-based single-photon sources. In this paper, we start by reviewing and reproducing some of the results concerning the resonance fluorescence spectrum, single-photon sources, dressed-state lasers, and luminescence spectrum of a quantum dot in a microcavity. Photon correlations in quantum optical systems and spectral properties of radiation emitted by atomic and semiconductor systems interacting with external fields are investigated. The well known Mollow triplet structure of the emission spectrum is discussed, together with the role of dressed states in explaining the origin of the three spectral peaks. Furthermore, the luminescence spectra of quantum emitters coupled to microcavities are reviewed. The numerical results presented here contribute to the theoretical understanding of resonance fluorescence, photon correlations, and engineered emission in quantum optical systems. These studies highlight the rich physical properties arising from light matter interaction at the quantum level and demonstrate their relevance for emerging quantum technologies.
Detailed properties of resonance fluorescence from a single quantum dot in a micropillar cavity are investigated, with particular focus on emission coherence in the dependence on optical driving field power and detuning. A power-dependent series over a wide range reveals characteristic Mollow triplet spectra with large Rabi splittings of |Ω|≤15 GHz. In particular, the effect of dephasing in terms of systematic spectral broadening ∝Ω(2) of the Mollow sidebands is observed as a strong fingerprint of excitation-induced dephasing. Our results are in excellent agreement with predictions of a recently presented model on phonon-dressed quantum dot Mollow triplet emission in the cavity-QED regime.