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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC)

Ultra-low power optical transistor using a single quantum dot embedded in a photonic wire

Hoai Anh Nguyen, Thomas Grange, Nitin S. Malik, Emmanuel Dupuy, D. Tumanov, Pierre-Louis de Assis, Inah Yeo, F. Fratini, Niels Gregersen, Alexia Auffèves, Jean‐Michel Gérard, Julien Claudon, J.-Ph. Poizat

Published Jun 1, 2017• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Summary form only given. Optical logic down to the single photon level holds the promise of data processing with a better energy efficiency than electronic devices [1]. In addition, preservation of quantum coherence in such logical components would enable optical quantum logical gates [2-8]. Optical logic requires optical non-linearities to allow for photon-photon interactions. Non-linearities usually appear for large intensities, but discrete transitions in a well coupled single two-level system allow for giant non-linearities operating at the single photon level.This is achieved by engineering what has been coined a "one-dimensional atom" [2], wherein a light emitter is predominantly coupled to a single propagating spatial mode. This favored coupling with a traveling mode is obtained either in a resonant optical cavity [3,4] or with non-resonant field confinement such as in single mode waveguides [5,6] or through the interaction with a focused optical beam [7,8] . Here we take advantage of the large coupling efficiency and the broadband operation of a photonic wire containing a semiconductor quantum dot (QD) [9] to implement a transistor using two different optical QD transitions. Our system is made of a single InAs QD embedded in a GaAs tapered photonic wire (fig. 1a). This system, in which the QD is efficiently coupled to a single guided mode, has been exploited to realize ultrabright single-photon sources [9]. We exploit here its broad operation bandwidth (>100 nm around 950 nm) to efficiently address two different transitions of the QD with two different laser beams to implement a two-color giant non-linearity: a weak probe laser has its reflectivity controlled by a few photons of the control laser.

DOI
10.1109/cleoe-eqec.2017.8087598

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Summary form only given. Optical logic down to the single photon level holds the promise of data processing with a better energy efficiency than electronic devices [1]. In addition, preservation of quantum coherence in such logical components would enable optical quantum logical gates [2-8]. Optical logic requires optical non-linearities to allow for photon-photon interactions. Non-linearities usually appear for large intensities, but discrete transitions in a well coupled single two-level system allow for giant non-linearities operating at the single photon level.This is achieved by engineering what has been coined a "one-dimensional atom" [2], wherein a light emitter is predominantly coupled to a single propagating spatial mode. This favored coupling with a traveling mode is obtained either in a resonant optical cavity [3,4] or with non-resonant field confinement such as in single mode waveguides [5,6] or through the interaction with a focused optical beam [7,8] . Here we take advantage of the large coupling efficiency and the broadband operation of a photonic wire containing a semiconductor quantum dot (QD) [9] to implement a transistor using two different optical QD transitions. Our system is made of a single InAs QD embedded in a GaAs tapered photonic wire (fig. 1a). This system, in which the QD is efficiently coupled to a single guided mode, has been exploited to realize ultrabright single-photon sources [9]. We exploit here its broad operation bandwidth (>100 nm around 950 nm) to efficiently address two different transitions of the QD with two different laser beams to implement a two-color giant non-linearity: a weak probe laser has its reflectivity controlled by a few photons of the control laser.
We present experimental results on two-mode optical giant non-linearity of a single InAs quantum dot (QD) embedded in a GaAs tapered photonic wire (fig. 1a). This system, in which the QD is efficiently coupled to a single guided mode, has been exploited to realize ultrabright single-photon sources [1,2]. We exploit here its broad operation bandwidth (>100 nm around 950 nm) to efficiently address two different transitions of the QD with two cw laser beams (fig. 1b). The laser coupled to the upper transition leads to a Rabi splitting of the intermediate state (Autler-Townes effect), affecting the resonant reflectivity of the laser coupled to the lower transition (see fig. 1c). By performing reflectivity experiment, we show that a coupling laser of 10 nW (50 photons per emitter lifetime) can modify the transmission of the probe laser, realizing an ultra-low power all-optical switch.
Optical logic down to the single photon level holds the promise of data processing with a better energy efficiency than electronic devices [1]. In addition, preservation of quantum coherence in such logical components could lead to optical quantum logical gates [2--4]. Optical logic requires optical non-linearities to enable photon-photon interactions. Non-linearities usually appear for large intensities, but discrete transitions allow for giant non-linearities operating at the single photon level [5], as demonstrated for a single optical mode with cold atomic gases [6, 7], or single two-level systems coupled to light via a tailored photonic environment [8--13]. However optical logic requires two-mode non-linearities [14, 15]. Here we take advantage of the large coupling efficiency and the broadband operation of a photonic wire containing a semiconductor quantum dot (QD) [16] to implement an all-optical logical component, wherein as few as 10 photons per QD lifetime in one mode control the reflectivity of another, spectrally distinct, mode. Whether classical or quantum, optical communication has proven to be the best choice for long distance information distribution. All-optical data processing has therefore raised much interest in recent years, as it would avoid energy and coherence consuming optics-to-electronics conversion steps. Two-ports operation is a necessary requirement for the implementation of any non-trivial optical data processing. This involves a non-linear interaction between two distinct optical modes. Such a functionality operating at the single photon level can be achieved with a giant cross non-linearity obtained via resonant interactions in an atomic-like system featuring discrete energy levels [5].
Optical nonlinearities usually occur at large intensities, but discrete transitions allow for giant nonlinearities operating at the single-photon level. Here, the authors demonstrate a two-mode giant nonlinearity with a single semiconductor quantum dot, embedded in a broadband photonic wire antenna. They exploit two detuned optical transitions associated with the exciton-biexciton quantum-dot level scheme. The reflection of one laser beam is controlled by the other beam with a threshold power as low as ten photons per exciton lifetime (1.6 nW). Such a two-color nonlinearity opens up appealing perspectives for the realization of integrated ultralow-power logical gates and optical quantum gates.
Strong non-linear interactions between photons enable logic operations for both classical and quantum-information technology. Unfortunately, non-linear interactions are usually feeble and therefore all-optical logic gates tend to be inefficient. A quantum emitter deterministically coupled to a propagating mode fundamentally changes the situation, since each photon inevitably interacts with the emitter, and highly correlated many-photon states may be created. Here we show that a single quantum dot in a photonic-crystal waveguide can be used as a giant non-linearity sensitive at the single-photon level. The non-linear response is revealed from the intensity and quantum statistics of the scattered photons, and contains contributions from an entangled photon-photon bound state. The quantum non-linearity will find immediate applications for deterministic Bell-state measurements and single-photon transistors and paves the way to scalable waveguide-based photonic quantum-computing architectures.
Abstract Single-atom waveguide-QED systems have emerged as a leading platform for demonstrating non-linear optics in the few-photon regime. Devices with such non-linear behavior are necessary for developing deterministic gates for photonic quantum computing. Artificial atoms coupled to nanophotonic or superconducting waveguides can be used to engineer highly efficient light-matter interfaces for such non-linear interactions, where every photon in the system interacts with the quantum emitter. However, it has been a challenge to access the reflection port of the waveguide due to the inability of rejecting stray electromagnetic fields that do not interact with the artificial atom. Here, we show coherent reflection of single photons from a semiconductor quantum dot strongly coupled to the fundamental waveguide mode of a nanowire. We utilize the tapered end of the nanowire for ideal mode-matching in a vertical geometry, enabled by a novel extinction technique. This mode-matching allows for efficient transfer of photons from the input to the reflection port while having all interacted with the quantum dot. Such a high-efficiency scalable photonic platform opens up applications in few-photon quantum nonlinear optics and has been proposed for creating key resource states for universal photon-based quantum computing.