Optically pumped GaN/AlGaN quantum well intersubband terahertz laser

We propose an optically pumped nonpolar GaN/AlGaN quantum well (QW) active region design for terahertz (THz) lasing in the wavelength range of 30 μm～ 40 μm and operating at room temperature. The fast longitudinal optical (LO) phonon scattering in GaN/AlGaN QWs is used to depopulate the lower laser state, and more importantly, the large LO phonon energy is utilized to reduce the thermal population of the lasing states at high temperatures. The influences of temperature and pump intensity on gain and electron densities are investigated. Based on our simulations, we predict that with a sufficiently high pump intensity, a room temperature operated THz laser using a nonpolar GaN/AlGaN structure is realizable.     

Room‐temperature terahertz emission from ZnSe‐based quantum cascade structures: A simulation study

We identified conditions for room‐temperature operation of terahertz quantum cascade lasers (THz QCLs) where variable barrier heights are used on ZnSe/Zn_1–xMg_x Se material systems. The THz QCL devices are based on three‐level two‐well design schemes. The THz QCL lasers with alternating quantum barriers with different heights were compared with THz QCL laser structures with fixed quantum barrier heights. It is found that the THz QCL device with novel design employing variable barrier heights achieved the terahertz emission of about 1.45 THz at room‐temperature (300 K), and has improved laser performance due to the suppression of thermally activated carrier leakage via higher‐energy parasitic levels. Thus, THz QCL devices employing the design with variable barrier heights may lead to future improvements of the operating temperature and performance of THz QCL lasers. (© 2016 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Single quantum dot nanolaser

Recent theoretical and experimental progress on nanolasers is reviewed with a focus on the emission properties of devices operating with a few or even an individual semiconductor quantum dot as a gain medium. Concepts underlying the design and operation of these devices, microscopic models describing light‐matter interaction and semiconductor effects, as well as recent experimental results and lasing signatures are discussed. In particular, a critical review of the “self‐tuned gain” mechanism which gives rise to quantum‐dot mode coupling in the off‐resonant case is provided. Furthermore recent advances in the modeling of single quantum dot lasers beyond the artificial atom model are presented with a focus on the exploration of similarities and differences between the atomic and semiconductor systems.     

新型超导量子比特及量子物理问题的研究

近年来,超导量子计算的研究有了很大的进展.本文首先介绍了nSQUID新型超导量子比特的制备和研究进展,包括器件的平面多层膜制备工艺和量子相干性的研究.这类器件在量子态的传输速度和二维势系统的基础物理问题研究方面有着很大的优越性.其次,国际上新近发展的平面形式的transmon和Xmon超导量子比特具有更长的量子相干时间,在器件的设计和耦合方面也有相当的灵活性.本文介绍了我们和浙江大学与中国科学技术大学等单位合作逐步完善的这种形式的Xmon器件的制备工艺、制备出的多种耦合量子比特芯片,以及参与合作,在国际上首次完成的多达10个超导量子比特的量子态纠缠、线性方程组量子算法的实现和多体局域态等固体物理问题的量子模拟.最后介绍了基于这些超导量子比特器件开展的大量的量子物理、非线性物理和量子光学方面的研究,包括在Autler-Townes劈裂、电磁诱导透明、受激拉曼绝热通道、循环跃迁和关联激光等方面形成的一整套系统和独特的研究成果.     

Radiation characteristics of injection lasers based on vertically coupled quantum dots

We have studied injection lasers based on InGaAs/GaAs vertically coupled quantum dots (QD) grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The threshold current density decreases by one order of magnitude down to 90 A cm⁻²(300 K) with an increase of the number of QD stacks (N) up to 10. ForN≥ 3 lasing occurs via the QD ground state up to room temperature. Differential efficiency increases withNup to 50%. No change in range of high temperature stability of threshold current density (J_th) was observed, while the characteristic temperature (T₀) measured at 300 K increases from 60 to 120 K. Using InGaAs-AlGaAs QD with higher localization energy allowed us to decreaseJ_thdown to 60 A cm⁻²and to increase the differential efficiency up to 70%.     

ZnCdO/ZnO – a new heterosystem for green‐wavelength semiconductor lasing

We report on our efforts to cultivate the ternary compound ZnCdO as a semiconductor laser material. Molecular beam epitaxy far from thermal equilibrium allows us to overcome the standard solubility limit and to fabricate alloys with band gaps ranging from 3.4 down to 2.1 eV. Optimized structures containing well‐defined quantum wells as active zones are capable of low‐threshold lasing under optical pumping up to room temperature. The longest lasing wavelength achieved so far is 510 nm.     

Low-temperature characteristics of two-color InAs/InP quantum dots laser

We report on the lasing characteristics of a two-color InAs/InP quantum dots(QDs)laser at a low tem-perature.Two lasing peaks with a tunable gap are simultaneously observed.At a low temperature of 80 K,a tunable range greater than a 20-nm wavelength is demonstrated by varying the injection current from 30 to 500 mA.Under a special condition,we even observe three lasing peaks,which are in contrast to those observed at room temperature.The temperature coefficient of the lasing wavelength was obtained for the two colors in the 80?280 K temperature range,which is lower than that of the reference quantum well(QW)laser working in the same wavelength region.     

Temperature dependent characteristics of InAs/GaAs quantum dot laser grown by gas source molecular beam epitaxy

We report on the temperature dependent lasing characteristics of InAs/GaAs quantum dot lasers under continuous wave mode. The five-stacked InAs quantum dots were grown by gas-source molecular beam epitaxy with slightly different thickness. Ridge waveguide laser with stripe width of 6 μm was processed on the growth structure. The characteristic temperature was measured as high as infinity in the temperature range of 80–180 k. With the increase of injection current, the lasing spectra of laser diode broaden gradually at low temperature of 80 k. However, when the operation temperature increases from 80 to 300 K, the width of lasing spectrum reduces gradually from 40 to 2.0 nm. The lasing process is obviously different from that of a reference quantum well laser which widens its width of lasing spectra by increasing operation temperature. These experiments demonstrate that a carrier transfer from the smaller size of dots into larger dots caused by thermal effect play an important role in the lasing characteristic of quantum dot lasers. In addition, the laser can operate at maximum temperature of 80 °C under continuous wave mode with a maximum output power of 52 mW from one facet at 20 °C. A wavelength thermal coefficient of 0.196 nm/K is obtained, which is 2.8 times lower than that of QW laser. The low wavelength thermal coefficient of quantum dot laser is mainly attributed to its broad gain profile and state filling effects.     

Room temperature operation of a deep etched buried heterostructure photonic crystal quantum cascade laser

High power single mode quantum cascade lasers with a narrow far field are important for several applications including surgery or military countermeasure. Existing technologies suffer from drawbacks such as operation temperature and scalability. In this paper we introduce a fabrication approach that potentially solves simultaneously these remaining limitations. We demonstrate and characterize deep etched, buried photonic crystal quantum cascade lasers emitting around a wavelength of 8.5 μm. The active region was dry etched before being regrown with semi‐insulating Fe:InP. This fabrication strategy results in a refractive index contrast of 10% allowing good photonic mode control, and simultaneously provides good thermal extraction during operation. Single mode emission with narrow far field pattern and peak powers up to 0.88 W at 263 K were recorded from the facet of the photonic crystal laser, and lasing operation was maintained up to room temperature. The lasing modes emitted from square photonic crystal mesas with a side length of 550μm, were identified as slow Bloch photonic crystal modes by means of three‐dimensional photonic simulations and measurements.

     

Simulated quantum computation of global minima

Finding the optimal solution to a complex optimisation problem is of great importance in practically all fields of science, technology, technical design and econometrics. We demonstrate that a modified Grover's quantum algorithm can be applied to real problems of finding a global minimum using modest numbers of quantum bits. Calculations of the global minimum of simple test functions and Lennard-Jones clusters have been carried out on a quantum computer simulator using a modified Grover's algorithm. The number of function evaluations N reduced from O(N) in classical simulation to O(N ^1/2) in quantum simulation. We also show how the Grover's quantum algorithm can be combined with the classical Pivot method for global optimisation to treat larger systems.     

Encoding entanglement-assisted quantum stabilizer codes

We address the problem of encoding entanglement-assisted (EA) quantum error-correcting codes (QECCs) and of the corresponding complexity. We present an iterative algorithm from which a quantum circuit composed of CNOT, H, and S gates can be derived directly with complexity O(n²) to encode the qubits being sent. Moreover, we derive the number of each gate consumed in our algorithm according to which we can design EA QECCs with low encoding complexity. Another advantage brought by our algorithm is the easiness and efficiency of programming on classical computers.     

Spectral diffusion in nitride quantum dots: Emission energy dependent linewidths broadening via giant built‐in dipole moments

We present a study about the origin of the huge emission linewidths broadening commonly observed for wurtzite GaN/AlN quantum dots. Our analysis is based on a statistically significant number of quantum dot spectra measured by an automatized µ‐photoluminescence mapping system applying image recognition techniques. A clear decrease of the single quantum dot emission linewidths is observed with rising overall exciton emission energy. 8‐band k · p based model calculations predict a corresponding decrease of the built‐in exciton dipole moments with increasing emission energy in agreement with the measured behavior for the emission linewidths. Based on this proportionality we explain the particular susceptibility of nitride quantum dots to spectral diffusion causing the linewidth broadening via the linear quantum‐confined Stark effect. This is the first statistical analysis of emission linewidths that identifies the giant excitonic dipole moments as their origin and estimates the native defect‐induced electric field strength to ～2 MV/m. Our observation is in contrast to less‐polar quantum dot systems as e.g. arsenides that exhibit a naturally lower vulnerability to emission linewidth broadening due to almost negligible exciton dipole moments. (© 2014 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Optical hybrid approaches to quantum information

This article reviews recent hybrid approaches to optical quantum information processing, in which both discrete and continuous degrees of freedom are exploited. There are well‐known limitations to optical single‐photon‐based qubit and multi‐photon‐based qumode implementations of quantum communication and quantum computation, when the toolbox is restricted to the most practical set of linear operations and resources such as linear optics and Gaussian operations and states. The recent hybrid approaches aim at pushing the feasibility, the efficiencies, and the fidelities of the linear schemes to the limits, potentially adding weak or measurement‐induced nonlinearities to the toolbox.     

Plasmons in a free-standing nanorod with a two-dimensional parabolic quantum well caused by surface states

The collective charge density excitations in a free-standing nanorod with a two-dimensional parabolic quantum well are investigated within the framework of Bohm-Pine’s random-phase approximation in the two-subband model.The new simplified analytical expressions of the Coulomb interaction matrix elements and dielectric functions are derived and numerically discussed.In addition,the electron density and temperature dependences of dispersion features are also investigated.We find that in the two-dimensional parabolic quantum well,the intrasubband upper branch is coupled with the intersubband mode,which is quite different from other quasi-one-dimensional systems like a cylindrical quantum wire with an infinite rectangular potential.In addition,we also find that higher temperature results in the intersubband mode(with an energy of 12 meV(～ 3 THz)) becoming totally damped,which agrees well with the experimental results of Raman scattering in the literature.These interesting properties may provide useful references to the design of free-standing nanorod based devices.     

Quantum well and quantum dot lasers: From strained-layer and self-organized epitaxy to high-performance devices

Strained heterostructures are now widely used to realize high-performance lasers. Highly mismatched epitaxy also produces defect-free quantum dots via an island growth mode. The characteristics of high-speed strained quantum well and quantum dot lasers are described. It is seen that substantial improvements in small-signal modulation bandwidth are obtained in both 1 m (48 GHz) and 1.55 m (26 GHz) by tunneling electrons directly into the lasing sub-band. In quantum dots the small-signal modulation bandwidth is limited by electron-hole scattering to 7 GHz at room temperature and 23 GHz at 80 K. The properties of these devices are described.     

Preservation of quantum states via a super-Zeno effect on ensemble quantum computers

Following a recent proposal by Dhar et al (2006 Phys. Rev. Lett. 96 100405), we demonstrate experimentally the preservation of quantum states in a two-qubit system based on a super-Zeno effect using liquid-state nuclear magnetic resonance techniques. Using inverting radiofrequency pulses and delicately selecting time intervals between two pulses, we suppress the effect of decoherence of quantum states. We observe that preservation of the quantum state |11\rg with the super-Zeno effect is three times more efficient than the ordinary one with the standard Zeno effect.     

Atomic spectroscopy and quantum optics in hollow‐core waveguides

Atomic spectroscopy is a well‐established, integral part of the physicist's toolbox with an extremely broad range of applications ranging from astronomy to single atom quantum optics. While highly desirable, miniaturization of atomic spectroscopy techniques on the chip scale was hampered by the apparent incompatibility of conventional solid‐state integrated optics and gaseous media. Here, the state of the art of atomic spectroscopy in hollow‐core optical waveguides is reviewed The two main approaches to confining light in low index atomic vapors are described: hollow‐core photonic crystal fiber (HC‐PCF) and planar antiresonant reflecting optical waveguides (ARROWs). Waveguide design, fabrication, and characterization are reviewed along with the current performance as compact atomic spectroscopy devices. The article specifically focuses on the realization of quantum interference effects in alkali atoms which may enable radically new optical devices based on low‐level nonlinear interactions on the single photon level for frequency standards and quantum communication systems.     

低维半导体异质结中的量子相干红外发射机理理论研究

给出了一种在非粒子反转条件下量子阱和量子点激光器的红外发射机理.此种红外发射是基于在同一作用区产生并作为红外场相干源的两种带间跃迁激光场的共振非线性混合.这种频率下转换机理并不依赖于在半导体激活媒质中的长时相干假定条件,在室温和泵注入电流条件下仍然有效.频率下转换的固有效率可以达到相当于每个可见光子产生一个红外光子的量子极限值.根据红外发射的可参变特性,这种非粒子反转的方法尤其适用于长波红外工作范围.     

量子势阱粒子群优化算法的改进研究

为提高量子势阱粒子群优化算法的优化能力, 通过分析目前量子势阱粒子群优化算法的设计过程, 提出了改进的量子势阱粒子群优化算法. 首先, 分别基于Delta势阱、谐振子和方势阱 提出了改进的量子势阱粒子群优化算法, 并提出了基于统计量均值的控制参数设计方法. 然后, 在势阱中心的设计方面, 为强调全局最优粒子的指导作用, 提出了基于自身最优粒子加权平均和动态随机变量的两种设计策略. 实验结果表明, 三种势阱粒子群优化算法性能比较接近, 都优于原算法, 且Delta势阱模型略优于其他两种.     

Mechanisms for spontaneous and stimulated recombination in multiple quantum wells of InGaN/GaN heterostructures on silicon substrates

With the aim of establishing the mechanisms for spontaneous recombination and lasing, we have studied InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well heterostructures emitting in the 450 nm region and grown by organometallic vapor-phase epitaxy on silicon substrates using several mechanical stress-reducing AlN/AlGaN inserts. Photoluminescence (PL) excitation spectroscopy, the non-monoexponential nonequilibrium carrier relaxation kinetics, and x-ray diffractometry data indicate significant inhomogeneity of the InGaN solid solution in quantum wells of these structures. The dependences of the position of the photoluminescence spectra on the excitation level and the temperature, the large shift in the photoluminescence, gain, and lasing spectra relative to the absorption edge allow us draw the conclusion that the dominant contribution to spontaneous and stimulated recombination comes from nonequilibrium charge carriers localized in indium-rich InGaN clusters. __________ Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 75, No. 1, pp. 94–101, January–February, 2008.