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Advanced Quantum Technologies

Coherent Swing‐Up Excitation for Semiconductor Quantum Dots

Katarina Boos, Friedrich Sbresny, Sang Kyu Kim, Malte Kremser, Hubert Riedl, Frederik W. Bopp, William Rauhaus, Bianca Scaparra, Klaus D. Jöns, Jonathan James Finley, Kai Müller, Lukas Hanschke

Published Jan 28, 2024• 16 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract Developing coherent excitation methods for quantum emitters ensuring high brightness, optimal single‐photon purity and indistinguishability of the emitted photons has been a key challenge in the past years. While various methods have been proposed and explored, they all have specific advantages and disadvantages. This study investigates the dynamics of the recent swing‐up scheme as an excitation method for a two‐level system and its performance in single‐photon generation. By applying two far red‐detuned laser pulses, the two‐level system can be prepared in the excited state with near‐unity fidelity. The successful operation and coherent character of this technique are demonstrated using a semiconductor quantum dot (QD). Moreover, the multi‐dimensional parameter space of the two laser pulses is explored to analyze its impact on excitation fidelity. Finally, the performance of the scheme as an excitation method for generating high‐quality single photons is analyzed. The swing‐up scheme itself proves effective, exhibiting nearly perfect single‐photon purity, while the observed indistinguishability in the studied sample is limited by the influence of the inevitable high excitation powers on the semiconductor environment of the quantum dot.

DOI
10.1002/qute.202300359

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Abstract Developing coherent excitation methods for quantum emitters ensuring high brightness, optimal single‐photon purity and indistinguishability of the emitted photons has been a key challenge in the past years. While various methods have been proposed and explored, they all have specific advantages and disadvantages. This study investigates the dynamics of the recent swing‐up scheme as an excitation method for a two‐level system and its performance in single‐photon generation. By applying two far red‐detuned laser pulses, the two‐level system can be prepared in the excited state with near‐unity fidelity. The successful operation and coherent character of this technique are demonstrated using a semiconductor quantum dot (QD). Moreover, the multi‐dimensional parameter space of the two laser pulses is explored to analyze its impact on excitation fidelity. Finally, the performance of the scheme as an excitation method for generating high‐quality single photons is analyzed. The swing‐up scheme itself proves effective, exhibiting nearly perfect single‐photon purity, while the observed indistinguishability in the studied sample is limited by the influence of the inevitable high excitation powers on the semiconductor environment of the quantum dot.
Developing coherent excitation methods for quantum emitters which enable high brightness, good single-photon purity and high indistinguishability of the emitted photons has been a key challenge in the past years. While many methods have been proposed and explored, they all have specific advantages and disadvantages. In this letter, we investigate the dynamics of the recent swing-up scheme as an excitation method for a two-level system and its performance in single-photon generation. By applying two far red-detuned laser pulses, the two-level system can be prepared in the excited state with near-unity fidelity. We demonstrate the successful functionality and the coherent character of this technique using semiconductor quantum dots. Moreover, we explore the multi-dimensional parameter space of the two laser pulses to study the impact on the excitation fidelity. Finally, we investigate the performance of the scheme as an excitation method for generation of high-quality single photons. We find that the swing-up scheme itself works well and exhibits nearly perfect single-photon purity, while the observed indistinguishability in our sample is limited by the influence of the inevitable high excitation powers on the semiconductor environment of the quantum dot.
In the SUPER scheme (Swing-UP of the quantum EmitteR population), excitation of a quantum emitter is achieved with two off-resonant, red-detuned laser pulses. This allows the generation of high-quality single photons without the need of complex laser stray light suppression or careful spectral filtering. In the present work, we extend this promising method to quantum emitters, specifically semiconductor quantum dots, inside a resonant optical cavity. A significant advantage of the SUPER scheme is identified in that it eliminates re-excitation of the quantum emitter by suppressing photon emission during the excitation cycle. This, in turn, leads to almost ideal single-photon purity, overcoming a major factor typically limiting the quality of photons generated with quantum emitters in high-quality cavities. We further find that for cavity-mediated biexciton emission of degenerate photon pairs, the SUPER scheme leads to near-perfect biexciton initialization with very high values of polarization entanglement of emitted photon pairs. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Coherent control of quantum emitters is essential for scalable quantum photonic technologies. The recently proposed swing up of the quantum emitter population (SUPER) scheme allows efficient and coherent state preparation via off-resonant, red-detuned laser pulses, simplifying laser suppression and enhancing photon collection. We present a systematic study of SUPER excitation applied to a single GaAs quantum dot in a low- Q micropillar cavity. We first identify the optimal excitation conditions for SUPER, and then compare the key figures of merit against the well-established two-photon excitation (TPE). Despite requiring higher excitation powers, SUPER achieves near-unity population inversion of the exciton state ( ∼ 95 % ) and high single-photon purity ( g ( 2 ) = 0.03 ) comparable to that under TPE, while also exhibiting a shortened decay time ( ∼ 200 ps) reducing the time jitter in the exciton population. A polarization-resolved analysis reveals that when both excitation and collection are aligned with one of the exciton dipoles, SUPER results in highly polarized single-photon emission, exceeding the resonant TPE saturation by a factor of 1.45. Under optimized excitation conditions, we also observe biexciton preparation via a distinct SUPER resonance, constituting an experimental demonstration of biexciton preparation using SUPER. These findings are in good agreement with a proposed four-level theoretical model that incorporates the biexciton state. Furthermore, we report that, strikingly, a slight misalignment of laser polarization induces an additional SUPER resonance that selectively populates the orthogonal exciton dipole, without altering the nominal excitation polarization. This unexpected behavior reveals a new degree of freedom for coherent state preparation. Our findings establish the SUPER scheme as a versatile tool for state-selective exciton and biexciton control, with strong potential for quantum photonic applications.
The swing-up of quantum emitter population (SUPER) scheme allows to populate the excited state of a quantum emitter with near-unity fidelity using two red-detuned laser pulses. Its off-resonant yet fully coherent nature has attracted significant interest in quantum photonics as a valuable tool for preparing single-photon sources in their excited state on demand while simultaneously ensuring straightforward spectral filtering of the laser. However, the physical understanding of this mechanism in terms of energy exchange between the electromagnetic field and the emitter is still lacking. Here, we present a fully quantized model of the swing-up excitation and demonstrate that it is in fact a multi-photon process, where one of the modes loses two or more photons while the other gains at least one. Our findings provide an unexpected physical interpretation of the SUPER scheme and unveil a new non-linear interaction between single emitters and multiple field modes.
The swing-up of quantum emitter population (SUPER) scheme allows to populate the excited state of a quantum emitter with near-unity fidelity using two red-detuned laser pulses. Its off-resonant, yet fully coherent nature has attracted significant interest in quantum photonics as a valuable tool for preparing single-photon sources in their excited state on demand, while simultaneously ensuring straightforward spectral filtering of the laser. However, the physical understanding of this mechanism in terms of energy exchange between the electromagnetic field and the emitter is still lacking. Here, we present a fully quantized model of the swing-up excitation and demonstrate that it is in fact a multi-photon process, where one of the modes loses two or more photons while the other gains at least one. Our findings provide an unexpected physical interpretation of the SUPER scheme and unveil a new non-linear interaction between single emitters and multiple field modes.