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Chinese Physics B

Entangled-photons generation with quantum dots

Yuan Li, Fei Ding, Oliver G. Schmidt

Published Feb 1, 2018• 9 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Entanglement between particles is a crucial resource in quantum information processing, an important example of which is the exploitation of entangled photons in quantum communication protocols. Among the different available sources of entangled photons, semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) excel owing to their deterministic emission properties, potential for electrical injections, and direct compatibility with semiconductor manufacturing techniques. Despite the great promises, QD-based sources are far from being ideal. In particular, such sources present several critical issues, which require the overcoming of challenges pertaining to spectral tunability, entanglement fidelity, photon indistinguishability and brightness. In this article, we will discuss the potential solutions to these problems and review the recent progress in the field.

DOI
10.1088/1674-1056/27/2/020307

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Entanglement between particles is a crucial resource in quantum information processing, an important example of which is the exploitation of entangled photons in quantum communication protocols. Among the different available sources of entangled photons, semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) excel owing to their deterministic emission properties, potential for electrical injections, and direct compatibility with semiconductor manufacturing techniques. Despite the great promises, QD-based sources are far from being ideal. In particular, such sources present several critical issues, which require the overcoming of challenges pertaining to spectral tunability, entanglement fidelity, photon indistinguishability and brightness. In this article, we will discuss the potential solutions to these problems and review the recent progress in the field.
The generation of on-demand, optimally entangled photon pairs remains one of the most formidable challenges in the quantum optics and quantum information community. Despite the fact that recent developments in this area have opened new doors leading toward the realization of sources exhibiting either high brightness or near-unity entanglement fidelity, the challenges to achieve both together persist. Here, we will provide a historical review on the development of quantum dots (QDs) for entangled photon generation, with a focus on nanowire QDs, and address the latest research performed on nanowire QDs, including measuring entanglement fidelity, light-extraction efficiency, dephasing mechanisms, and the detrimental effects of detection systems on the measured values of entanglement fidelity. Additionally, we will discuss results recently observed pertaining to resonant excitation of a nanowire QD, revealing the potential of such sources to outperform spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) sources, providing a viable solution to the current challenges in quantum optics and quantum information.
Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) have emerged as a premier solid-state platform for the deterministic generation of nonclassical light, offering a compelling pathway toward scalable quantum photonic systems. While single-photon emission from QDs has reached a high level of maturity, the realization of high-fidelity entangled photon-pair sources remains an active and rapidly evolving frontier. In this review, we survey the recent progress in QD-based entangled photon sources, highlighting the conceptual evolution from the established biexciton–exciton cascade to the emerging paradigm of spontaneous two-photon emission. We further examine how advances in nanophotonic architectures and coherent control strategies are redefining fundamental performance limits, enabling concurrent improvements in source brightness, coherence, and entanglement fidelity. Finally, we discuss the key physical and technological challenges that must be addressed to bridge the gap between laboratory demonstrations and large-scale deployment. We conclude by outlining the future opportunities for integrating QD-based entangled photon sources into practical quantum communication, computation, and sensing platforms.
Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) have emerged as a premier solid-state platform for the deterministic generation of nonclassical light, offering a compelling pathway toward scalable quantum photonic systems. While single-photon emission from QDs has reached a high level of maturity, the realization of high-fidelity entangled photon-pair sources remains an active and rapidly evolving frontier. In this review, we survey the recent progress in QD-based entangled photon sources, highlighting the conceptual evolution from the established biexciton-exciton cascade to the emerging paradigm of spontaneous two-photon emission. We further examine how advances in nanophotonic architectures and coherent control strategies are redefining fundamental performance limits, enabling concurrent improvements in source brightness, coherence, and entanglement fidelity. Finally, we discuss the key physical and technological challenges that must be addressed to bridge the gap between laboratory demonstrations and large-scale deployment. We conclude by outlining the future opportunities for integrating QD-based entangled photon sources into practical quantum communication, computation, and sensing platforms.
The generation and long-haul transmission of highly entangled photon pairs is a cornerstone of emerging photonic quantum technologies with key applications such as quantum key distribution and distributed quantum computing. However, a natural limit for the maximum transmission distance is inevitably set by attenuation in the medium. A network of quantum repeaters containing multiple sources of entangled photons would allow overcoming this limit. For this purpose, the requirements on the source's brightness and the photon pairs' degree of entanglement and indistinguishability are stringent. Despite the impressive progress made so far, a definitive scalable photon source fulfilling such requirements is still being sought after. Semiconductor quantum dots excel in this context as sub-Poissonian sources of polarization entangled photon pairs. In this work, we present the state-of-the-art set by GaAs based quantum dots and use them as a benchmark to discuss the challenges toward the realization of practical quantum networks.
Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are able to confine single charges on the nanoscale in all three dimensions of space, making them excellent systems for exploring quantum phenomena. In particular, QDs have demonstrated outstanding performance as sources of entangled and indistinguishable photon pairs, properties highly desired in the fields of quantum communication and -information processing. Here I report on the advances of QDs as potential resources for photonic quantum networks, which allow to overcome the fundamental range limitations of single photon-based applications. After an introduction to the underlying mechanisms of entangled photon pair generation, I demonstrate several building blocks of quantum networks, with quantum key distribution as a prime application.
Entanglement-based quantum key distribution (e-QKD) is a cornerstone of quantum-secure communication, offering advantages in device-independent security, compatibility with quantum networks, and resilience to specific attacks. While the probabilistic nature of entangled photon generation has slowed down experimental adoption compared to prepare-and-measure approaches, deterministic solid-state emitters—particularly epitaxial quantum dots (QDs)—have recently emerged as promising candidates for scalable, high-rate implementations. In this review, we survey the main e-QKD protocols along with their practical requirements and assess current technologies for entangled photon pair generation. We place particular emphasis on the state of the art in QD-based entangled photon sources, analyzing design strategies and performance metrics that directly impact secure key generation. Recent experimental advances demonstrating entanglement distribution and e-QKD with QDs over both fiber and free-space channels are discussed in detail. We conclude with an outlook on remaining challenges in source engineering, transmission capacity, and system integration, highlighting the potential of QDs to enable next-generation quantum communication technologies.