Biexciton cascade in telecommunication wavelength quantum dots
M. B. Ward, P. M. Intallura, Chandra M. Natarajan, Robert H. Hadfield, P. Atkinson, Zhiliang L. Yuan, Shigehito Miki, Mikio Fujiwara, Masahide Sasaki, Z Wang, Burm Baek, Sae Woo Nam, D. A. Ritchie, Andrew J. Shields
We report on polarisation correlation from the cascaded recombination of biexcitons in a quantum dot emitting at a telecommunication wavelength. The fine structure splitting of the exciton state in this InAs/GaAs quantum dot is of the order of 100 μeV and polarisation correlation is expected. Strong polarisation correlation between the biexciton and exciton emission lines is observed under both continuous wave (CW) and pulsed laser excitation so telecom wavelength quantum dots with lower energy splittings could be suitable for entangled photon pair generation. Measurements were performed using nanowire superconducting single photon detectors (SSPDs). SSPDs offer low time-jitter and improve the resolution of features in the correlation spectra, including the asymmetric dip and peak resulting from the cascaded emission with the peak extending more than an order of magnitude above the Poissonian level.
We report on polarisation correlation from the cascaded recombination of biexcitons in a quantum dot emitting at a telecommunication wavelength. The fine structure splitting of the exciton state in this InAs/GaAs quantum dot is of the order of 100 μeV and polarisation correlation is expected. Strong polarisation correlation between the biexciton and exciton emission lines is observed under both continuous wave (CW) and pulsed laser excitation so telecom wavelength quantum dots with lower energy splittings could be suitable for entangled photon pair generation. Measurements were performed using nanowire superconducting single photon detectors (SSPDs). SSPDs offer low time-jitter and improve the resolution of features in the correlation spectra, including the asymmetric dip and peak resulting from the cascaded emission with the peak extending more than an order of magnitude above the Poissonian level.
High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide Entangled photon pairs at telecom wavelengths are essential for quantum communication, distributed computing, and quantum-enhanced sensing. The telecom O-band offers low chromatic dispersion and fiber loss, which is ideal for long-distance networks. Site-controlled nanowire quantum dots have emerged as a promising platform for generating single and entangled photons, offering high extraction efficiency and scalability. However, their operation has largely been restricted to the visible and first near-infrared (NIR-I) windows. Here, we demonstrate a bright source of entangled photon pairs in the telecom O-band based on site-controlled nanowire quantum dots. We measure a fine-structure splitting of 4.6 μeV, confirming suitability for high-fidelity polarization entanglement. Quantum-state tomography of the biexciton–exciton cascade reveals a maximum fidelity of 85.8 ± 1.1% to the Φ + Bell state and a maximum concurrence of 75.1 ± 2.1%. This work establishes nanowire quantum dots as viable entangled photon sources at telecom, advancing scalable quantum technologies for fiber-based networks.
Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are well established as sub-Poissonian sources of entangled photon pairs. To improve the utility of a QD light source, it would be advantageous to extend their emission further into the near infrared, into the low absorption wavelength windows utilised in long-haul optical telecommunication. Initial experiments succeeded in interfering O-band (1260—1360 nm) photons from an InAs/GaAs QD with dissimilar photons from a laser, an important mechanism for quantum teleportation. Interference visibilities as high as 60 ± 6 % were recorded, surpassing the 50 % threshold imposed by classical electrodynamics. Later, polarisation-entanglement of a similar QD was observed, with pairs of telecom-wavelength photons from the radiative cascade of the biexciton state exhibiting fidelities of 92.0 ± 0.2 % to the Bell state. Subsequently, an O-band telecom-wavelength quantum relay was realised. Again using an InAs/GaAs QD device, this represents the first implementation of a sub-Poissonian telecom-wavelength quantum relay, to the best knowledge of the author. The relay proved capable of implementing the famous four-state BB84 protocol, with a mean teleportation fidelity as high as 94.5 ± 2.2 %, which would contribute 0.385 secure bits per teleported qubit. After characterisation by way of quantum process tomography, the performance of the relay was also evaluated to be capable of implementing a six-state QKD protocol. In an effort to further extend the emitted light from a QD into the telecom C-band (1530—1565 nm), alternative material systems were investigated. InAs QDs on a substrate of InP were shown to emit much more readily in the fibre-telecom O- and C-bands than their InAs/GaAs counterparts, largely due to the reduced lattice mismatch between the QD and substrate for InAs/InP (~3 %) compared to InAs/GaAs (~7 %). Additionally, to minimize the fine structure splitting (FSS) of the exciton level, which deteriorates the observed polarisation-entanglement, a new mode of dot growth was investigated. Known as droplet epitaxy (D-E), QDs grown in this mode showed a fourfold reduction in the FSS compared to dots grown in the Stranski-Krastanow mode. This improvement would allow observation of polarisation-entanglement in the telecom C-band. In subsequent work performed by colleagues at the Toshiba Cambridge Research Labs, these D-E QDs were embedded in a p-i-n doped optical cavity, processed with electrical contacts, and found to emit entangled pairs of photons under electrical excitation. The work of this thesis provides considerable technological advances to the field of entangled-light sources, that in the near future may allow for deterministic quantum repeaters operating at megahertz rates, and in the further future could facilitate the distribution of coherent multipartite states across a distributed quantum network.
Hereby, we study the generation of pairs of polarization-entangled photons at telecom C-band by biexciton-exciton cascade from non-resonantly excited epitaxial InAs/InP quantum dots (QDs). It is realized without external tuning of the fine structure splitting (FSS), which does not exceed 10 μeV in as-grown nanostructures, due to their high in-plane symmetry. Excitonic complexes are identified by means of excitation power-dependent and polarization-resolved magneto)microphotoluminescence. Their origin from different carrier configurations confined in the same QD is confirmed by time correlations of emitted photons. Experimental results are supported by 8-band kp calculations, followed by the configuration interaction method to include excitonic effects. This comparison reveals the structure of higher energy states, allowing for the reconstruction of the QD structural parameters. To verify and quantify the entanglement, we perform quantum state tomography and reconstruct the two-photon density matrix. Its diagonalization allows a detailed analysis of the entangled state and reveals an unfavourable interplay between phase accumulation and decoherence, pointing to a clear route for boosting entanglement by using a XX resonant, pulsed excitation scheme and shortening the radiative lifetimes.
We demonstrate the emission of polarization-entangled photons from a single semiconductor quantum dot in the telecom C-band (1530 nm–1565 nm). To reach this telecommunication window, the well-established material system of InAs quantum dots embedded in InGaAs barriers is utilized with an additional insertion of an InGaAs metamorphic buffer to spectrally shift the system to the desired wavelengths. For the observation of polarization-entangled photon pairs, the biexciton-exciton cascade of a quantum dot displaying an intrinsically low fine-structure splitting is investigated by means of polarization-dependent cross-correlation measurements. A complete set of tomography measurements enables us to reconstruct the two-photon density matrix and therefore to calculate a corresponding fidelity f+ to the maximally entangled Bell state Ψ+ of 0.61 ± 0.07, a concurrence of 0.74 ± 0.11, a tangle of 0.55 ± 0.14, and a negativity of 0.63 ± 0.12, clearly proving the entanglement of the states. Finally, the development of the concurrence is studied in dependency of the post-selected time-gate of the emission events and the progression of the time-delay dependent fidelity to distinct Bell states is displayed.
Single InAs quantum dot (QD) sample was grown by molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE). The Photoluminescences (PL) of the exciton and biexciton in a single QD were measured at 5 K. The PL intensity as a function of the laser excitation power, the fine structure splittings of the exciton and biexciton, and the corresponding linearly polarized emissions were analyzed. By means of Hanbury-Brown and Twiss (HBT) setup, the photon correlation between the PL of exciton and biexciton were measured, which is gave an evidence of the quantum cascade emissions between biexciton and exciton PL.