A. Lemaître

Ultrabright source of entangled photon pairs

A source of triggered entangled photon pairs is a key component in quantum information science; it is needed to implement functions such as linear quantum computation, entanglement swapping and quantum teleportation. Generation of polarization entangled photon pairs can be obtained through parametric conversion in nonlinear optical media or by making use of the radiative decay of two electron–hole pairs trapped in a semiconductor quantum dot. Today, these sources operate at a very low rate, below 0.01 photon pairs per excitation pulse, which strongly limits their applications. For systems based on parametric conversion, this low rate is intrinsically due to the Poissonian statistics of the source. Conversely, a quantum dot can emit a single pair of entangled photons with a probability near unity but suffers from a naturally very low extraction efficiency. Here we show that this drawback can be overcome by coupling an optical cavity in the form of a ‘photonic molecule’ to a single quantum dot. Two coupled identical pillars—the photonic molecule—were etched in a semiconductor planar microcavity, using an optical lithography method that ensures a deterministic coupling to the biexciton and exciton energy states of a pre-selected quantum dot. The Purcell effect ensures that most entangled photon pairs are emitted into two cavity modes, while improving the indistinguishability of the two optical recombination paths. A polarization entangled photon pair rate of 0.12 per excitation pulse (with a concurrence of 0.34) is collected in the first lens. Our results open the way towards the fabrication of solid state triggered sources of entangled photon pairs, with an overall (creation and collection) efficiency of 80%.

Collective fluid dynamics of a polariton condensate in a semiconductor microcavity

Semiconductor microcavities offer unique systems in which to investigate the physics of weakly interacting bosons. Their elementary excitations, polaritons—mixtures of excitons and photons—can accumulate in macroscopically degenerate states to form various types of condensate in a wide range of experimental configurations, under either incoherent or coherent excitation. Condensates of polaritons have been put forward as candidates for superfluidity, and the formation of vortices as well as elementary excitations with linear dispersion are actively sought as evidence to support this. Here, using a coherent excitation triggered by a short optical pulse, we have created and set in motion a macroscopically degenerate state of polaritons that can be made to collide with a variety of defects present in the microcavity. Our experiments show striking manifestations of a coherent light–matter packet, travelling at high speed (of the order of one per cent of the speed of light) and displaying collective dynamics consistent with superfluidity, although one of a highly unusual character as it involves an out-of-equilibrium dissipative system. Our main results are the observation of a linear polariton dispersion accompanied by diffusionless motion; flow without resistance when crossing an obstacle; suppression of Rayleigh scattering; and splitting into two fluids when the size of the obstacle is comparable to the size of the wave packet. This work opens the way to the investigation of new phenomenology of out-of-equilibrium condensates.eprints@whiterose.ac.uk https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ Reuse Unless indicated otherwise, fulltext items are protected by copyright with all rights reserved. The copyright exception in section 29 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 allows the making of a single copy solely for the purpose of non-commercial research or private study within the limits of fair dealing. The publisher or other rights-holder may allow further reproduction and re-use of this version refer to the White Rose Research Online record for this item. Where records identify the publisher as the copyright holder, users can verify any specific terms of use on the publisher’s website.

Near-optimal single-photon sources in the solid state

A single photon with near-unity indistinguishability is generated from quantum dots in electrically controlled cavity structures. The cavity allows for efficient photon collection while application of an electrical bias cancels charge noise effects.

Spontaneous formation and optical manipulation of extended polariton condensates

Long-lived polariton condensates can propagate well beyond the area of their initial excitation while still maintaining spatial coherence. This enables direct and controllable manipulation of the condensate wavefunction.

Polariton Laser Using Single Micropillar GaAs − GaAlAs Semiconductor Cavities

Polariton lasing is demonstrated on the zero-dimensional states of single GaAs/GaAlAs micropillar cavities. Under nonresonant excitation, the measured polariton ground-state occupancy is found as large as 10(4). Changing the spatial excitation conditions, competition between several polariton lasing modes is observed, ruling out Bose-Einstein condensation. When the polariton state occupancy increases, the emission blueshift is the signature of self-interaction within the half-light half-matter polariton lasing mode.

Controlled light-matter coupling for a single quantum dot embedded in a pillar microcavity using far-field optical lithography.

Using far-field optical lithography, a single quantum dot is positioned within a pillar microcavity with a 50 nm accuracy. The lithography is performed in situ at 10 K while measuring the quantum dot emission. Deterministic spectral and spatial matching of the cavity-dot system is achieved in a single step process and evidenced by the observation of strong Purcell effect. Deterministic coupling of two quantum dots to the same optical mode is achieved, a milestone for quantum computing.

Bright solid-state sources of indistinguishable single photons

Bright sources of indistinguishable single photons are strongly needed for the scalability of quantum information processing. Semiconductor quantum dots are promising systems to build such sources. Several works demonstrated emission of indistinguishable photons while others proposed various approaches to efficiently collect them. Here we combine both properties and report on the fabrication of ultrabright sources of indistinguishable single photons, thanks to deterministic positioning of single quantum dots in well-designed pillar cavities. Brightness as high as 0.79±0.08 collected photon per pulse is demonstrated. The indistinguishability of the photons is investigated as a function of the source brightness and the excitation conditions. We show that a two-laser excitation scheme allows reducing the fluctuations of the quantum dot electrostatic environment under high pumping conditions. With this method, we obtain 82±10% indistinguishability for a brightness as large as 0.65±0.06 collected photon per pulse.

Enhancement of the spin accumulation at the interface between a spin-polarized tunnel junction and a semiconductor.

We report on spin injection experiments at a Co/Al2O3/GaAs interface with electrical detection. The application of a transverse magnetic field induces a large voltage drop DeltaV at the interface as high as 1.2 mV for a current density of 0.34 nA.microm(-2). This represents a dramatic increase of the spin accumulation signal, well above the theoretical predictions for spin injection through a ferromagnet/semiconductor interface. Such an enhancement is consistent with a sequential tunneling process via localized states located in the vicinity of the Al2O3/GaAs interface. For spin-polarized carriers these states act as an accumulation layer where the spin lifetime is large. A model taking into account the spin lifetime and the escape tunneling time for carriers traveling back into the ferromagnetic contact reproduces accurately the experimental results.

Spin precession and inverted Hanle effect in a semiconductor near a finite-roughness ferromagnetic interface

Although the creation of spin polarization in various nonmagnetic media via electrical spin injection from a ferromagnetic tunnel contact has been demonstrated, much of the basic behavior is heavily debated. It is reported here that, for semiconductor/Al(2)O(3)/ferromagnet tunnel structures based on Si or GaAs, local magnetostatic fields arising from interface roughness dramatically alter and even dominate the accumulation and dynamics of spins in the semiconductor. Spin precession in inhomogeneous magnetic fields is shown to reduce the spin accumulation up to tenfold, and causes it to be inhomogeneous and noncollinear with the injector magnetization. The inverted Hanle effect serves as the experimental signature. This interaction needs to be taken into account in the analysis of experimental data, particularly in extracting the spin lifetime tau(s) and its variation with different parameters (temperature, doping concentration). It produces a broadening of the standard Hanle curve and thereby an apparent reduction of tau(s). For heavily doped n-type Si at room temperature it is shown that tau(s) is larger than previously determined, and a new lower bound of 0.29 ns is obtained. The results are expected to be general and to occur for spins near a magnetic interface not only in semiconductors but also in metals and organic and carbon-based materials including graphene, and in various spintronic device structures.

Direct Observation of Dirac Cones and a Flatband in a Honeycomb Lattice for Polaritons

Two-dimensional lattices of coupled micropillars etched in a planar semiconductor microcavity offer a workbench to engineer the band structure of polaritons. We report experimental studies of honeycomb lattices where the polariton low-energy dispersion is analogous to that of electrons in graphene. Using energy-resolved photoluminescence, we directly observe Dirac cones, around which the dynamics of polaritons is described by the Dirac equation for massless particles. At higher energies, we observe p orbital bands, one of them with the nondispersive character of a flatband. The realization of this structure which holds massless, massive, and infinitely massive particles opens the route towards studies of the interplay of dispersion, interactions, and frustration in a novel and controlled environment.