A. Löffler

Photon antibunching from a single quantum dot-microcavity system in the strong coupling regime

Light-matter interaction on the level of single emitters and single photons has attracted significant scientific interest in recent years. Of particular interest is strong coupling of single emitters in solid state systems and its application to quantum information processing. Due to the enormous progress in semiconductor technology it has become feasible to demonstrate strong coupling of single quantum dots in high-Q microcavity systems. Although it has been argued in these studies that it is very unlikely that several degenerated quantum dots contributed to the observed Rabi-splitting, it was not verified that the system had one and only one emitter. In this work we present proof that the emission from a strongly-coupled QD- microcavity system is dominated by a single quantum emitter.

AlAs/GaAs micropillar cavities with quality factors exceeding 150.000

The authors report on AlAs∕GaAs micropillar cavities with unprecedented quality factors based on high reflectivity distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs). Due to an increased number of mirror pairs in the DBRs and an optimized etching process record quality (Q) factors up to 165.000 are observed for micropillars with diameters of 4μm. Optical studies reveal a very small ellipticity of 5×10−4 of the pillar cross section. Because of the high Q factors, strong coupling with a vacuum Rabi splitting of 23μeV is observed for micropillars with a diameter of 3μm.

Post-Selected Indistinguishable Photons from the Resonance Fluorescence of a Single Quantum Dot in a Microcavity

Applying continuous-wave pure resonant s-shell optical excitation of individual quantum dots in a high-quality micropillar cavity, we demonstrate the generation of post-selected indistinguishable photons in resonance fluorescence. Close to ideal visibility contrast of 90% is verified by polarization-dependent Hong-Ou-Mandel two-photon interference measurements. Furthermore, a strictly resonant continuous-wave excitation together with controlling the spontaneous emission lifetime of the single quantum dots via tunable emitter-mode coupling (Purcell) is proven as a versatile scheme to generate close to Fourier transform-limited (T2/(2T1)=0.91) single photons even at 80% of the emission saturation level.

Electrically driven high-Q quantum dot-micropillar cavities

We report on high quality electrically driven quantum dot micropillar cavities with Q-factors up to 16.000. The high Q-factors allow the observation of pronounced single dot resonance effects with a Purcell enhancement of about 10.

Non-resonant dot|[ndash]|cavity coupling and its potential for resonant single-quantum-dot spectroscopy

Mechanisms of distinct resonance in microcavities driven by strongly detuned single quantum dots are not well understood. Investigation of non-resonant dot–cavity coupling of individual quantum dots in micropillars now suggests a dominant role of phonon-mediated dephasing. This new perspective may have implications for single-photon sources, quantum information applications and spectroscopy.

Lasing in high-Q quantum-dot micropillar cavities

We present lasing in optically pumped high-Q micropillar cavity lasers with low thresholds and high β factors. The micropillar cavities with diameters between 1.0 and 4.0μm contain a single layer of low density In0.3Ga0.7As quantum dots as active region. Cavity Q factors of up to 23.000 for 4.0μm micropillar cavities and lasing based on less than 70 quantum dots is demonstrated.

Semiconductor quantum dot microcavity pillars with high-quality factors and enlarged dot dimensions

Vertical-emitting AlAs∕GaAs microcavity pillars with a type of GaInAs quantum dots within a one λ cavity have been realized based on high reflectivity distributed Bragg reflectors. High-quality factors were achieved due to an improved fabrication technology with a maximum quality factor of 27 700 for a micropillar with a diameter of 4μm. The dot dimensions could be enlarged by one order of magnitude using a low strain Ga0.7In0.3As nucleation layer.

Dephasing of triplet-sideband optical emission of a resonantly driven InAs/GaAs quantum dot inside a microcavity.

Detailed properties of resonance fluorescence from a single quantum dot in a micropillar cavity are investigated, with particular focus on emission coherence in the dependence on optical driving field power and detuning. A power-dependent series over a wide range reveals characteristic Mollow triplet spectra with large Rabi splittings of |Ω|≤15  GHz. In particular, the effect of dephasing in terms of systematic spectral broadening ∝Ω(2) of the Mollow sidebands is observed as a strong fingerprint of excitation-induced dephasing. Our results are in excellent agreement with predictions of a recently presented model on phonon-dressed quantum dot Mollow triplet emission in the cavity-QED regime.

Single vortex-antivortex pair in an exciton-polariton condensate

Bound pairs consisting of a vortex and an antivortex are expected to dominate the low-temperature physics in a variety of two-dimensional systems. The observation of such bound pairs, however, remains elusive. A study now establishes non-equilibrium condensates of exciton-polaritons as a platform for exploring the physics of vortex–antivortex pairs.

Single quantum dot controlled lasing effects in high-Q micropillar cavities.

Lasing effects based on individual quantum dots have been investigated in optically pumped high-Q micropillar cavities. We demonstrate a lowering of the threshold pump power from a off-resonance value of 37 microW to 18 microW when an individual quantum dot exciton is on-resonance with the cavity mode. Photon correlation studies below and above the laser threshold confirm the single dot influence. At resonance we observe antibunching with g((2))(0) = 0.36 at low excitation, which increases to 1 at about 1.5 times the threshold. In the off-resonant case, g((2))(0) is about 1 below and above threshold.