Quantum-dot-based single and entangled photon sources

Robert James Young, Mark Stevenson, P. Atkinson +3 more

Robert James Young, R. M. Stevenson, Andrew J. Hudson +4 more

For scalable applications of optical quantum information it is desirable to have a well controlled source of photons, producing single photons or entangled-pairs on-demand. The finite delay following decay of an exciton confined in a quantum dot makes them a good source of single photons, we demonstrate this, triggering the emission with a pulsed laser. Currently the most widely used techniques for generating entangled photon pairs are nonlinear optical processes, such as parametric down conversion, which produces a probabilistic number of pairs per excitation cycle. Such a source is of limited use in quantum information/processing applications where a regular stream of single entangled photon pairs is preferable. We produced such a triggered source from a semiconductor device for the first time, using the two-photon cascade from a biexciton confined in a single quantum dot. We demonstrate a fidelity of 70% for the emission from the biexciton cascade to the expected bell state. Single quantum dots could prove to be the first robust and compact triggered source of entangled photons.

Alper Kıraz, Peter Michler, Christoph Becher +6 more

Y. Yamamoto, Matthew A. Pelton, Charles Santori +1 more

Robert James Young

A well controlled, triggered source of entangled photons is desirable for many applications in quantum information processing. The two-photon cascade from a biexciton state, two electrons and holes, confined in a quantum dot can be such a source of polarisation-entangled photons provided the two decay paths from the biexciton carry no “which-path” information. In recent years many techniques have been employed to make the two optical decay paths from the biexciton state indistinguishable. We will demonstrate the effect of the exciton fine-structure splitting on a single-dot based entangled photon source. Surprisingly the entanglement is found to persist despite relatively large separations between the intermediate energy levels of up to 4µeV. Measurements demonstrate that entanglement of the photon pair is robust to the dephasing of the intermediate exciton state responsible for the first order coherence time of either of the single photons. We distinguish between the first-order coherence time (2*), and a parameter defined as the cross-coherence time (HV) which is illustrated in the figure. The cross-coherence time is found to be at least an order of magnitude greater than the first-order coherence time. We will also report on recent progress towards an ideal source of triggered polarisation-entangled photons with a single quantum dot.

Jihun Cha