Fabrication of quantum dot transistors incorporating a single self-assembled quantum dot

We report on the fabrication and the characterization of quantum dot transistors incorporating a single self-assembled quantum dot. The current–voltage characteristics exhibit clear staircase structures at room temperature. They are attributed to electron tunneling through the quantized energy levels of a single quantum dot.     

Eigenstate symmetry probed by biexciton transitions in a single quantum dot

The eigenstate symmetry in CdSe/ZnSe single quantum dots (SQDs) has been studied by low-temperature magnetoluminescence spectroscopy. Regarding both, the fine structure splitting and the polarization properties of the biexciton transition, the influence of exchange and Zeeman interaction on the eigenstate symmetry of the final state of recombination, the ground state of the single exciton, is investigated.     

Spontaneous two-photon emission from a single quantum dot

Spontaneous two-photon emission from a solid-state single quantum emitter is observed. We investigated photoluminescence from the neutral biexciton in a single semiconductor quantum dot coupled with a high Q photonic crystal nanocavity. When the cavity is resonant to the half energy of the biexciton, the strong vacuum field in the cavity inspires the biexciton to simultaneously emit two photons into the mode, resulting in clear emission enhancement of the mode. Meanwhile, the suppression of other single photon emission from the biexciton was observed, as the two-photon emission process becomes faster than the others at the resonance.     

Optical absorptions of a biexciton quantum dot

A investigation of the linear and nonlinear optical properties for intersubband electronic transitions associated with a biexciton in a quantum dot has been performed by using the method of few-body physics. The optical absorption coefficients and the refractive index changes have been examined based on the computed energies and wave functions. It is over two orders of magnitude higher than that obtained in an exciton quantum dot. The results show that the optical absorption saturation intensity can be controlled by the confinement potential frequency and the relaxation time.     

Single-mode spontaneous emission from a single quantum dot in a three-dimensional microcavity

The spontaneous emission from an isolated semiconductor quantum dot state has been coupled with high efficiency to a single, polarization-degenerate cavity mode. The InAs quantum dot is epitaxially formed and embedded in a planar epitaxial microcavity, which is processed into a post of submicron diameter. The single quantum dot spontaneous emission lifetime is reduced from the noncavity value of 1.3 ns to 280 ps, resulting in a single-mode spontaneous emission coupling efficiency of 78%.     

Strong optical field study of a single self-assembled quantum dot

We review the investigation of a single quantum dot driven by a strong optical field. By coherent pump-probe spectroscopy, we demonstrate the Autler–Townes splitting and Mollow absorption spectrum in a single neutral quantum dot. Furthermore, we also show the typical Mollow absorption spectrum by driving a singly charged quantum dot in a strong optical coupling regime. Our results show all the typical features of an isolated atomic system driven by a strong optical field, such as the AC stark effect, Rabi side bands and optical gain effect, which indicate that both neutral and charged quantum dots maintain the discrete energy level states even at high optical field strengths.     

Voltage-controlled linewidth of excitonic transitions in a single self-assembled quantum dot

We report electron and hole tunnelling phenomena in a single self-assembled quantum dot as a function of the applied electric field. We use absorption spectroscopy which allows us to measure excitonic transitions under conditions where optical recombination cannot be observed due to the high, ionizing, electric field.     

Light emission from silicon nanocrystals: Probing a single quantum dot

Analysis of low-temperature photoluminescence measurements performed on single silicon nanocrystals is presented. The luminescence emission linewidth of Si nanocrystals is found to be less than thermal broadening at low temperature, confirming the atomic-like nature of their energetic states. Beside the main peak the low-temperature spectra reveal a ∼6 meV replica, the origin of which is discussed. For some of the investigated dots, we also observe a ∼60 meV transverse optical (TO) phonon replica. The regular arrangement of individual nanocrystals used in this work enables combined high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and low-temperature photoluminescence characterization of the same single quantum dot.     

Two-color two-photon Rabi oscillation of biexciton in single InAs/GaAs quantum dot

A two-photon absorption resonance is observed when the sum-frequency of two laser pulses equals the creation energy of a biexciton in a single InAs/GaAs semiconductor quantum dot. Resonant excitation of the two-color two-photon transition results in a coherent oscillation that is remarkably similar to a single-color two-photon Rabi oscillation of the crystal-ground to biexciton optical transition. A model explaining the coherent two-photon absorption is presented.     

Quantum emission dynamics from a single quantum dot in a planar photonic crystal nanocavity

A theoretical quantum-optical study of the modified spontaneous emission dynamics from a single quantum dot in a photonic crystal nanocavity is presented. By use of a photon Green function technique, enhanced single-photon emission and pronounced vacuum Rabi flops are demonstrated, in qualitative agreement with recent experiments.     

Fine structure splitting and biexciton binding energy in single self-assembled InAs/AlAs quantum dots

We report on photoluminescence investigations of individual InAs quantum dots embedded in an AlAs matrix which emit in the visible region, in contrast to the more traditional InAs/GaAs system. Biexciton binding energies, considerably larger than for InAs/GaAs dots, up to 9 meV are observed. The biexciton binding energy decreases with decreasing dot size, reflecting a possible crossover to an antibinding regime. Exciton and biexciton emission consists of linearly cross polarized doublets due to a large fine structure splitting up to 0.3 meV of the bright exciton state. With increasing exciton transition energy the fine structure splitting decreases down to zero at about 1.63 eV. Differences with InAs/GaAs QDs may be attributed to major dot shape anisotropy and/or larger confinement due to higher AlAs barriers.     

Triggered single photons from a quantum dot

We demonstrate a new method for generating triggered single photons. After a laser pulse generates excitons inside a single quantum dot, electrostatic interactions between them and the resulting spectral shifts allow a single emitted photon to be isolated. Correlation measurements show a reduction of the two-photon probability to 0.12 times the value for Poisson light. Strong antibunching persists when the emission is saturated. The emitted photons are also polarized.     

Stimulated emission from a single excited atom in a waveguide

We study stimulated emission from an excited two-level atom coupled to a waveguide containing an incident single-photon pulse. We show that the strong photon correlation, as induced by the atom, plays a very important role in stimulated emission. Additionally, the temporal duration of the incident photon pulse is shown to have a marked effect on stimulated emission and atomic lifetime.     

Subnatural linewidth single photons from a quantum dot

The observation of quantum-dot resonance fluorescence enabled a new solid-state approach to generating single photons with a bandwidth approaching the natural linewidth of a quantum-dot transition. Here, we operate in the small Rabi frequency limit of resonance fluorescence--the Heitler regime--to generate subnatural linewidth and high-coherence quantum light from a single quantum dot. The measured single-photon coherence is 30 times longer than the lifetime of the quantum-dot transition, and the single photons exhibit a linewidth which is inherited from the excitation laser. In contrast, intensity-correlation measurements reveal that this photon source maintains a high degree of antibunching behavior on the order of the transition lifetime with vanishing two-photon scattering probability. Generating decoherence-free phase-locked single photons from multiple quantum systems will be feasible with our approach.     

Photon beats from a single semiconductor quantum dot

Single-photon interference is observed on the ultranarrow long-term stable exciton resonance of an individual semiconductor quantum dot. This interference is related to the fine-structure splitting and allows direct conclusions about the coherence properties of the exciton. When selectively addressing a particular dot by quasiresonant phonon-assisted excitation, despite a rapid orientation relaxation on a 1-ps time scale, coherence is partly maintained. No significant further decoherence occurs when the ground state is reached until the exciton recombines radiatively (approximately 300 ps).     

Biexciton quantum coherence in a single quantum dot

Nondegenerate (two-wavelength) two-photon absorption using coherent optical fields is used to show that there are two different quantum mechanical pathways leading to formation of the biexciton in a single quantum dot. Of specific importance to quantum information applications is the resulting coherent dynamics between the ground state and the biexciton from the pathway involving only optically induced exciton/biexciton quantum coherence. The data provide a direct measure of the biexciton decoherence rate which is equivalent to the decoherence of the Bell state in this system, as well as other critical optical parameters.     

Tunable quantum dot arrays formed from self-assembled metal-organic networks

The confinement of Ag(111) surface-state electrons by self-assembled, nanoporous metal-organic networks is studied using low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy as well as electronic structure calculations. The honeycomb networks of Co metal centers and dicarbonitrile-oligophenyl linkers induce surface resonance states confined in the cavities with a tunable energy level alignment. We find that electron scattering is repulsive on the molecules and weakly attractive on Co. The tailored networks represent periodic arrays of uniform and coupled quantum dots.     

Spontaneous emission from a quantum dot embedded in a bi-sphere microcavity

The spontaneous emission from a quantum dot embedded in a bi-sphere microcavity is analyzed theoretically. By taking full account of the photon degree of freedom, we derive theoretically the constant of coupling between the quantum dot and the cavity as well as the radiation damping constants, which are used in the conventional cavity QED approach. In addition, we show that the power spectrum of the spontaneous emission at a local observation point is strongly affected by the photon Green function.     

Deutsch-jozsa algorithm using triggered single photons from a single quantum dot

We demonstrate a two-qubit Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm with single photons from a single InP quantum dot. The qubits are implemented via the spatial mode and the polarization of a single photon. Our photon source is operated both under continuous and pulsed excitation, the latter allowing deterministic quantum logic by generating photons on demand with a strong suppression of two-photon events. The computation reached a success probability of up to 79%. We also exploit the concept of decoherence-free subspaces that helps to make our experimental setup robust against sources of phase noise.