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Nano Letters

Photon Storage with Nanosecond Switching in Coupled Quantum Well Nanostructures

Alexander Winbow, Aeron Tynes Hammack, Леонид Викторович Бутов, Arthur C. Gossard

Published Apr 11, 2007• 47 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Photon storage with nanosecond switching was implemented with indirect excitons in coupled quantum well nanostructures. The storage and release of photons was controlled by the gate voltage pulses. The nanosecond write and readout times were much shorter than the storage time, which reached microseconds. Furthermore, the presented control of excitons on a time scale much shorter than the exciton lifetime demonstrates the feasibility of studying excitons in in situ controlled electrostatic traps.

DOI
10.1021/nl070386c

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Photon storage with nanosecond switching was implemented with indirect excitons in coupled quantum well nanostructures. The storage and release of photons was controlled by the gate voltage pulses. The nanosecond write and readout times were much shorter than the storage time, which reached microseconds. Furthermore, the presented control of excitons on a time scale much shorter than the exciton lifetime demonstrates the feasibility of studying excitons in in situ controlled electrostatic traps.
Indirect excitons in GaAs coupled quantum well nanostructures are a versatile system for fundamental study of cold neutral bosonic gases and demonstration of novel optoelectronic devices based on excitons -- a bound electron-hole pair -- rather than electrons. Indirect exciton lifetimes range from nanoseconds to microseconds and cool rapidly after photoexcitation to the lattice temperature. Lithographically-patterned electrodes enable design of potential energy landscapes, and both energy and lifetime can be controlled in situ, rapidly, on timescales much shorter than the exciton lifetime. Such intrinsically optoelectronic devices can operate at speeds relevant to optical networks, and later be fabricated in other semiconductors for higher-temperature operation. Two different kinds of devices are demonstrated Photon storage -- an optical memory -- with 250 ps rise time of the readout optical signal and storage time reaching microseconds was implemented with indirect excitons in CQW. The storage and release of photons was controlled by the gate voltage pulse, and the transient processes in the CQW studied by measuring the kinetics of the exciton emission spectra. This control of excitons on timescales much shorter than the exciton lifetime demonstrates the feasibility of studying excitons in in situ controlled electrostatic traps. The Exciton Conveyer is a laterally moving electrostatic lattice potential for actively transporting excitons. Generated by laterally modulated electrodes, the potential velocity and depth are controlled in situ by frequency and voltage. We observed exciton transport characterized by average exciton cloud spatial extension over several tens of microns, and observed dynamical localization-delocalization transitions for the excitons in the conveyer : In the localization regime of deeper potentials and moderate exciton density, excitons are moved by the conveyer; in the delocalized regime of shallower lattice potential or high exciton density, excitons do not follow the conveyer motion. We explore conveyer velocities both slower and faster than phonon velocities. Realizing subnanosecond manipulations of exciton energy and lifetime required versatile control of pulsed and multiple AC RF electrical signals in optical, liquid helium cryogenic systems. Considerable detail is presented of design, construction, and test of flexible experimental apparatus
Photon storage with 250 ps rise time of the readout optical signal was implemented with indirect excitons in coupled quantum well (CQW) nanostructures. The storage and release of photons was controlled by the gate voltage pulse. The transient processes in the CQW were studied by measuring the kinetics of the exciton emission spectra after application of the gate voltage pulse. Strong oscillations of the exciton emission wavelength were observed in the transient regime when the gate voltage pulse was carried over an ordinary wire. Gating the CQW via an impedance-matched broadband transmission line has lead to an effective elimination of these transient oscillations and expedient switching of the exciton energy to a required value within a short time, much shorter than the exciton lifetime.
We demonstrate storage of excitons in a single nanostructure, a self-assembled quantum post. After generation, electrons and holes forming the excitons are separated by an electric field toward opposite ends of the quantum post inhibiting their radiative recombination. After a defined time, the spatially indirect excitons are reconverted to optically active direct excitons by switching the electric field. The emitted light of the stored exciton is detected in the limit of a single nanostructure and storage times exceeding 30 msec are demonstrated. We identify a slow tunneling of the electron out of the quantum post as the dominant loss mechanism by comparing the field dependent temporal decay of the storage signal to models for this process and radiative losses.
We present an exciton-spin memory scheme using a single QDM consisting of two InAs QDs separated by a thin GaAs tunnelling barrier. Electrical control of the electron-hole spatial separation allowed the exciton lifetime to be tuned in the 1-1000 ns range. Storage and read-out operations were implemented using sub nanosecond modulation of the lifetime and photon storage up to 1μs was demonstrated. Using resonant excitation the circular polarisation of photons was transferred and stored in the exciton Zeeman states of a QDM under a magnetic field. The delayed emission was clearly co-polarised with the excitation light and a combined fidelity of 80% for the write and read operations was achieved.
Storage and retrieval of excitons were demonstrated with semiconductor self-assembled quantum dots (QDs). The optically generated excitons were dissociated and stored as separated electron-hole pairs in coupled QD pairs. A bias voltage restored the excitons, which recombined radiatively to provide a readout optical signal. The localization of the spatially separated electron-hole pair in QDs was responsible for the ultralong storage times, which were on the order of several seconds. The present limits of this optical storage medium are discussed.
Quantum dots (QDs) are an excellent single-photon source that can be combined with a spin quantum memory. Many quantum technologies require increased control over the characteristics of emitted photons. A powerful approach is to trigger coherent Raman photons from QDs with a Λ energy-level system, such as the spin singlet-triplet system in two coupled QDs. The temporal and spectral behavior of single Raman photons can be varied simply by modifying the excitation source. Here, we demonstrate control of the single-photon pulse shape in a solid-state system on a timescale much shorter than the radiative lifetime, in addition to control of the frequency and bandwidth. We achieve a photon pulse width of 80 ps-an order of magnitude shorter than the exciton lifetime. Possible applications include time-bin encoding of quantum information, matching photons from different sources, and efficient single-photon transfer in a quantum network.