Quantum interface between an electrical circuit and a single atom

We show how to bridge the divide between atomic systems and electronic devices by engineering a coupling between the motion of a single ion and the quantized electric field of a resonant circuit. Our method can be used to couple the internal state of an ion to the quantized circuit with the same speed as the internal-state coupling between two ions. All the well-known quantum information protocols linking ion internal and motional states can be converted to protocols between circuit photons and ion internal states. Our results enable quantum interfaces between solid state qubits, atomic qubits, and light, and lay the groundwork for a direct quantum connection between electrical and atomic metrology standards.     

Electronically excited cold ion crystals

The laser excitation of an ion crystal to high-lying and long-lived electronic states is a genuine many-body process even if in fact only a single ion is excited. This is a direct manifestation of the strong coupling between internal and external dynamics and becomes most apparent in the vicinity of a structural phase transition. Here we show that utilizing highly excited states offers a new approach to the coherent manipulation of ion crystals. This opens up a new route towards the creation of nonclassical motional states in a Paul trap and permits the study of quantum phenomena that rely on a strong coupling between electronic and vibrational dynamics.     

On‐chip single photon sources using planar photonic crystals and single quantum dots

We review the basic light‐matter interactions and optical properties of chip‐based single photon sources, that are enabled by integrating single quantum dots with planar photonic crystals. A theoretical framework is presented that allows one to connect to a wide range of quantum light propagation effects in a physically intuitive and straightforward way. We focus on the important mechanisms of enhanced spontaneous emission, and efficient photon extraction, using all‐integrated photonic crystal components including waveguides, cavities, quantum dots and output couplers. The limitations, challenges, and exciting prospects of developing on‐chip quantum light sources using integrated photonic crystal structures are discussed.     

制备囚禁冷离子的振动压缩量子态

基于非Lamb-Dicke近似下激光-离子相互作用的动力学规律,讨论了如何利用一系列的激光脉冲来驱动囚禁冷离子.从囚禁冷离子的运动基态出发获得压缩相干态、压缩奇偶相干态、压缩真空态等一系列的振动数态的叠加态.结果表明,只要适当地调节各个所用激光脉冲的长度和相位,总能很好逼近所需要的压缩量子态. 关键词： 囚禁冷离子 激光脉冲 压缩量子态     

Concept of deterministic single ion doping with sub-nm spatial resolution

We propose a method for deterministic implantation of single atoms into solids which relies on a linear ion trap as an ion source. Our approach allows a deterministic control of the number of implanted atoms and a spatial resolution of less than 1 nm. Furthermore, the method is expected to work for almost all chemical elements. The deterministic implantation of single phosphor or nitrogen atoms is interesting for the fabrication of scalable solid state quantum computers, in particular for silicon and diamond based schemes. A wide range of further applications is expected for the fabrication of nano and sub-nano electronic devices. PACS 03.67.-a; 29.25.Ni; 61.72.Ji; 81.16.Rf; 85.40.Ry     

Cd(II) line spectrum emission from semiconductive CdS single crystals

A new method of atom or ion excitation is demonstrated using a semiconductive CdS single crystal. The intense light emission of Cd(II) ion is observed at an adequate He gas pressure, in addition to the Cd(I) atomic line spectrum, when the comparatively low pulse voltage of 810 V/cm is applied to the CdS single crystal. The excitation of Cd(II) is the result of the Penning effect and the energy exchange between He⁺ and Cd atom. Also, the line spectrum emissions of Tl, Ca, Ba, Al, and Ag, which are evaporated on the CdS single crystal, can be observed under the pulse voltage. Our excitation method for the ion or neutral atom is unique in that it requires a comparatively low field for operation and no additional heater for thermal vaporization of those elements.     

囚禁单离子的量子阻尼运动

用包含偶极和四极虚势能项的非厄米哈密顿算符来描述Paul阱中囚禁阻尼单离子在静电场下的量子运动.通过导出和分析系统的精确解,得到在PT对称和不对称情形下的不同实能谱与稳定量子态,以及PT不对称情形的虚能谱和衰减量子态,同时给出相应于不同态的参数区域和存活概率.结果发现该非厄米系统外场参数能惟一确定量子稳定态并导致波函数形态变化,据此提出非相干操控相应量子跃迁的方法.让量子态衰减导致的离子位置期待值的衰减与经典阻尼谐振子的衰减一致,得到虚势能参数与经典阻尼参数的对应关系.所得结果将进一步丰富具有广泛应用背景的囚禁离子动力学.     

Room-temperature single photon sources with definite circular and linear polarizations

We report experimental results of two room-temperature single photon sources with definite polarization based on emitters embedded in either cholesteric or nematic liquid crystal hosts. In the first case, a cholesteric 1-D photonic bandgap microcavity provides circular polarization of definite handedness of single photons from single colloidal semiconductor quantum dots (nanocrystals). In these experiments, the spectral position of the quantum dot fluorescence maximum is at the bandedge of a photonic bandgap structure. The host does not destroy fluorescence antibunching of single emitters. In the second case, photons with definite linear polarization are obtained from single dye molecules doped in a planar-aligned nematic liquid crystal host. The combination of sources with definite linear and circular polarization states of single photons can be used in a practical implementation of the BB84 quantum key distribution protocol.     

Isolated single quantum dot emitters in all-epitaxial microcavities

Data are presented on a fabrication approach that places an isolated single quantum dot at the center of a semiconductor microcavity. The microcavity is based on an all-epitaxial mesa-confined design that is mechanically robust and provides the thermal dissipation needed for a single photon source device technology. Microphotoluminescence is used to reveal single quantum dot emission with the essential optical properties of single quantum emitters.     

Imaging single quantum dots in three-dimensional photonic crystals

Performing fluorescence wide-field microscopy we have imaged single semiconductor quantum dots deep inside a 3-dimensional photonic crystal prepared from colloidal polymer beads. Exploring the emission diffraction patterns in defocused images of quantum dots we demonstrate that the direction-dependent photonic stop band imprints an anisotropy to the angular emission of a single quantum dot. Hence a single, quasi-point-like emitter is manipulated to radiate its photons only to certain well-defined directions by means of the anisotropic light propagation in photonic crystals. The experiments thus provide new routes to evaluate local, frequency selective optical properties in 3-dimensional photonic crystals employing single emitters.     

Recent advances on single photon sources based on single colloidal nanocrystals

Single colloidal quantum dots (QDs) are increasingly exploited as triggered sources of single photons. This review reports on recent results on single photon sources (SPS) based on colloidal quantum dots, whose size, shape and optical properties can be finely tuned by wet chemistry approach. First, we address the optical properties of different colloidal nanocrystals, such as dots, rods and dot in rods and their use as single photon sources will be discussed. Then, we describe different techniques for isolation and positioning single QDs, a major issue for fabrication of single photon sources, and various approaches for the embedding single nanocrystals inside microcavities. The insertion of single colloidal QDs in quantum confined optical systems allows one to improve their overall optical properties and performances in terms of efficiency, directionality, life time, and polarization control. Finally, electrical pumping of colloidal nanocrystals light emitting devices and of NC-based single photon sources is reviewed.     

Positioning photonic crystal cavities to single InAs quantum dots

We have investigated the optical properties of planar photonic crystal cavities formed by removing a single hole from a two-dimensional square lattice of air holes etched through a thin GaAs slab. We have demonstrated cavity resonances with quality factors (Q’s) as high as 8500, using an internal light source provided by an ensemble of InAs quantum dots (QDs) grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The high-Q modes are confined to a very small mode volume, V = 0.7(λ/n)³, making them attractive to study in the context of cavity quantum electrodynamics with single QDs, where a high is needed to observe the strong coupling between an electronic state of the dot and the optical cavity mode. To this end, we have developed an accurate and robust alignment technique that positions a photonic crystal cavity to a single QD with 25 nm resolution. We present the details of this new technology and demonstrate its effectiveness by strategically positioning a number of QDs within photonic crystal cavities at points where the electric field intensity is high.     

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.     

Cavity QED effects with single quantum dots

A single quantum dot embedded in a photonic crystal defect cavity allows for the investigation of cavity quantum electrodynamics effects in a solid-state environment. We present experiments demonstrating the quantum nature of this fundamental system in the strong coupling regime. Photon correlation measurements are used to characterize the fundamental properties of this unique system: through these experiments, we identify an unexpected, efficient sustaining mechanism that ensures strong cavity emission and is quantum correlated with the exciton resonance, even when all the quantum dot resonances are far detuned from the cavity mode. To cite this article: A. Badolato et al., C. R. Physique 9 (2008).     

Experimental realization of highly efficient broadband coupling of single quantum dots to a photonic crystal waveguide

We present time-resolved spontaneous emission measurements of single quantum dots embedded in photonic crystal waveguides. Quantum dots that couple to a photonic crystal waveguide are found to decay up to 27 times faster than uncoupled quantum dots. From these measurements beta-factors of up to 0.89 are derived, and an unprecedented large bandwidth of 20 nm is demonstrated. This shows the promising potential of photonic crystal waveguides for efficient single-photon sources. The scaled frequency range over which the enhancement is observed is in excellent agreement with recent theoretical proposals taking into account that the light-matter coupling is strongly enhanced due to the significant slow-down of light in the photonic crystal waveguides.     

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.     

Inserting single Cs atoms into an ultracold Rb gas

We report on the controlled insertion of individual Cs atoms into an ultracold Rb gas at ≈400 nK. This requires one to combine the techniques necessary for cooling, trapping and manipulating single laser cooled atoms around the Doppler temperature with an experiment to produce ultracold degenerate quantum gases. In our approach, both systems are prepared in separated traps and then combined. Our results pave the way for coherent interaction between a quantum gas and a single or few neutral atoms of another species.     

Observation of unique photon statistics of single artificial atom laser

We demonstrate a photonic crystal nanocavity laser essentially driven by a self-assembled InAs/GaAs single quantum dot gain and its unique photon statistics. Gain tuning measurements and photon correlation measurements indicated that a single quantum dot plays a substantial role in the laser oscillation. Photon correlation measurements showed a distinct transition from anti-bunching to Poissonian via photon bunching around the threshold with the increase of the excitation power. Numerical simulations, including contributions of other light sources besides a single quantum dot, indicated that the photon bunching feature around the threshold can be enhanced by the interfusion of incoherent photons into the cavity mode.     

Quantum Wave Equation of Photon

In this paper, we give the quantum wave equations of single photon when it is in the vacuum and medium. With these wave equations, we can study light interference and diffraction with the approach of quantum theory, and also can study the quantum property of photon when it is in a general crystal and photonic crystal. Otherwise, it can be applied in quantum optics and condensed matter feld.     

Quantum dots in photonic crystals: From quantum information processing to single photon nonlinear optics

Quantum dots in photonic crystals are interesting both as a testbed for fundamental cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) experiments and as a platform for quantum and classical information processing. We describe a technique to coherently access the QD-cavity system by resonant light scattering. Among other things, the coherent access enables a giant optical nonlinearity associated with the saturation of a single quantum dot strongly coupled to a photonic crystal cavity. We explore this nonlinearity to implement controlled phase and amplitude modulation between two modes of light at the single photon level—a nonlinearity observed so far only in atomic physics systems. We also measured the photon statistics of the reflected beam at various detunings with the QD/cavity system. These measurements reveal effects such as photon blockade and photon-induced tunneling, for the first time in solid state. These demonstrations lie at the core of a number of proposals for quantum information processing, and could also be employed to build novel devices, such as optical switches controlled at the single photon level.