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arXiv:1612.03063 · Physical Review Letters

Reducing Phonon-Induced Decoherence in Solid-State Single-Photon Sources with Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics

Thomas Grange, Niccolò Somaschi, C. Antón, Lorenzo De Santis, G. Coppola, Valérian Giesz, Aristide Lemaître, Isabelle Sagnes, Alexia Auffèves, P. Senellart

Published Jun 23, 2017• 110 citations

Abstract

Solid-state emitters are excellent candidates for developing integrated sources of single photons. Yet, phonons degrade the photon indistinguishability both through pure dephasing of the zero-phonon line and through phonon-assisted emission. Here, we study theoretically and experimentally the indistinguishability of photons emitted by a semiconductor quantum dot in a microcavity as a function of temperature. We show that a large coupling to a high quality factor cavity can simultaneously reduce the effect of both phonon-induced sources of decoherence. It first limits the effect of pure dephasing on the zero-phonon line with indistinguishabilities above 97% up to 18 K. Moreover, it efficiently redirects the phonon sidebands into the zero-phonon line and brings the indistinguishability of the full emission spectrum from 87% (24%) without cavity effect to more than 99% (76%) at 0K (20K). We provide guidelines for optimal cavity designs that further minimize the phonon-induced decoherence.

DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.118.253602

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