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arXiv:1904.05103 · Physical Review Letters

Fundamental Limits to Coherent Photon Generation with Solid-State Atomlike Transitions

Zhe Xian Koong, Eleanor Scerri, Markus Rambach, Ted Silva Santana, S. I. Park, J. D. Song, Erik M. Gauger, Brian D. Gerardot

Published Oct 16, 2019• 22 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Coherent generation of indistinguishable single photons is crucial for many quantum communication and processing protocols. Solid-state realizations of two-level atomic transitions or three-level spin-Λ systems offer significant advantages over their atomic counterparts for this purpose, albeit decoherence can arise due to environmental couplings. One popular approach to mitigate dephasing is to operate in the weak-excitation limit, where the excited-state population is minimal and coherently scattered photons dominate over incoherent emission. Here we probe the coherence of photons produced using two-level and spin-Λ solid-state systems. We observe that the coupling of the atomiclike transitions to the vibronic transitions of the crystal lattice is independent of the driving strength, even for detuned excitation using the spin-Λ configuration. We apply a polaron master equation to capture the non-Markovian dynamics of the vibrational manifolds. These results provide insight into the fundamental limitations to photon coherence from solid-state quantum emitters.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.123.167402

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Coherent generation of indistinguishable single photons is crucial for many quantum communication and processing protocols. Solid-state realizations of two-level atomic transitions or three-level spin-Λ systems offer significant advantages over their atomic counterparts for this purpose, albeit decoherence can arise due to environmental couplings. One popular approach to mitigate dephasing is to operate in the weak-excitation limit, where the excited-state population is minimal and coherently scattered photons dominate over incoherent emission. Here we probe the coherence of photons produced using two-level and spin-Λ solid-state systems. We observe that the coupling of the atomiclike transitions to the vibronic transitions of the crystal lattice is independent of the driving strength, even for detuned excitation using the spin-Λ configuration. We apply a polaron master equation to capture the non-Markovian dynamics of the vibrational manifolds. These results provide insight into the fundamental limitations to photon coherence from solid-state quantum emitters.
The desire to produce high-quality single photons for applications in quantum information science has lead to renewed interest in exploring solid-state emitters in the weak excitation regime. Under these conditions it is expected that photons are coherently scattered, and so benefit from a substantial suppression of detrimental interactions between the source and its surrounding environment. Nevertheless, we demonstrate here that this reasoning is incomplete, as phonon interactions continue to play a crucial role in determining solid-state emission characteristics even for very weak excitation. We find that the sideband resulting from non-Markovian relaxation of the phonon environment is excitation strength independent. It thus leads to an intrinsic limit to the fraction of coherently scattered light and to the visibility of two-photon coalescence at weak driving, both of which are absent for atomic systems or within simpler Markovian treatments.
The desire to produce high-quality single photons for applications in quantum information science has lead to renewed interest in exploring solid-state emitters in the weak excitation regime. Under these conditions it is expected that photons are coherently scattered, and so benefit from a substantial suppression of detrimental interactions between the source and its surrounding environment. Nevertheless, we demonstrate here that this reasoning is incomplete, as phonon interactions continue to play a crucial role in determining solid-state emission characteristics even for very weak excitation. We find that the sideband resulting from non-Markovian relaxation of the phonon environment is excitation strength independent. It thus leads to an intrinsic limit to the fraction of coherently scattered light and to the visibility of two-photon coalescence at weak driving, both of which are absent for atomic systems or within simpler Markovian treatments.
The coherent control of a two-level system is among the most essential challenges in modern quantum optics. Understanding its fundamental limitations is crucial, also for the realization of next generation quantum devices. The quantum coherence of a two level system is fragile in particular, when the two levels are connected via an optical transition. When such quantum emitters are located in solids the coherence suffers from the interaction of the optical transition with the solid state environment, which requires the sample to be cooled to temperatures of a few Kelvin or below. Here, we use a mechanically isolated quantum emitter in hexagonal boron nitride to explore the individual mechanisms which affect the coherence of an optical transition under resonant drive. We operate the system at the threshold where the mechanical isolation collapses in order to study the onset and temperature-dependence of dephasing and independently of spectral diffusion. The new insights on the underlying physical decoherence mechanisms reveals a limit in temperature until which coherent driving of the system is possible. This study enables to increase the operation temperature of quantum devices, therefore reducing the need for cryogenic cooling.
Reliable single photon sources constitute the basis of schemes for quantum communication and measurement based quantum computing. Solid state single photon sources based on quantum dots are convenient and versatile but the electronic transitions that generate the photons are subject to interactions with lattice vibrations. Using a microscopic model of electron-phonon interactions and a quantum master equation, we here examine phonon-induced decoherence and assess its impact on the rate of production, and indistinguishability, of single photons emitted from an optically driven quantum dot system. We find that, above a certain threshold of desired indistinguishability, it is possible to mitigate the deleterious effects of phonons by exploiting a three-level Raman process for photon production.
Coherent scattering of light by a single quantum emitter is a fundamental process at the heart of many proposed quantum technologies. Unlike atomic systems, solid-state emitters couple to their host lattice by phonons. Using a quantum dot in an optical nanocavity, we resolve these interactions in both time and frequency domains, going beyond the atomic picture to develop a comprehensive model of light scattering from solid-state emitters. We find that even in the presence of a low-Q cavity with high Purcell enhancement, phonon coupling leads to a sideband that is completely insensitive to excitation conditions and to a nonmonotonic relationship between laser detuning and coherent fraction, both of which are major deviations from atomlike behavior.
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.