Edward Flagg

Coalescence of Single Photons Emitted by Disparate Single-Photon Sources: The Example of InAs Quantum Dots and Parametric Down-Conversion Sources

Single photons produced by fundamentally dissimilar physical processes will in general not be indistinguishable. We show how photons produced from a quantum dot and by parametric down-conversion in a nonlinear crystal can be manipulated to be indistinguishable. The measured two-photon coalescence probability is 16%, and is limited by quantum-dot decoherence. Temporal filtering to the quantum-dot coherence time and accounting for detector time response increases this to 61% while retaining 25% of the events. This technique can connect different elements in a scalable quantum network.

Optical spin readout method in a quantum dot using the ac Stark effect

We propose a method to read-out the spin-state of an electron in a quantum dot in a Voigt geometry magnetic field using cycling transitions induced by the AC Stark effect. We show that cycling transitions can be made possible by a red-detuned, circularly-polarized laser, which modifies the spin eigenstates and polarization selection rules via the AC Stark effect. A Floquet-Liouville supermatrix approach is used to calculate the time-evolution of the density matrix under the experimental conditions of a spin read-out operation. With an overall detection efficiency of 2.5%, the read-out is a single-shot measurement with a fidelity of 76.2%.

Polarization-Dependent Interference of Coherent Scattering from Orthogonal Dipole Moments of a Resonantly Excited Quantum Dot

Interference between coherent scattering from the two fine structure split exciton states in a neutral InGaAs quantum dot causes an unconventional excitation line shape. Analysis allows the extraction of steady-state coherence between the exciton states.

Resonance Fluorescence of an InGaAs Quantum Dot in a Planar Cavity Using Orthogonal Excitation and Detection

The ability to perform simultaneous resonant excitation and fluorescence detection is important for quantum optical measurements of quantum dots (QDs). Resonant excitation without fluorescence detection - for example, a differential transmission measurement - can determine some properties of the emitting system, but does not allow applications or measurements based on the emitted photons. For example, the measurement of photon correlations, observation of the Mollow triplet, and realization of single photon sources all require collection of the fluorescence. Incoherent excitation with fluorescence detection - for example, above band-gap excitation - can be used to create single photon sources, but the disturbance of the environment due to the excitation reduces the indistinguishability of the photons. Single photon sources based on QDs will have to be resonantly excited to have high photon indistinguishability, and simultaneous collection of the photons will be necessary to make use of them. We demonstrate a method to resonantly excite a single QD embedded in a planar cavity by coupling the excitation beam into this cavity from the cleaved face of the sample while collecting the fluorescence along the samples surface normal direction. By carefully matching the excitation beam to the waveguide mode of the cavity, the excitation light can couple into the cavity and interact with the QD. The scattered photons can couple to the Fabry-Perot mode of the cavity and escape in the surface normal direction. This method allows complete freedom in the detection polarization, but the excitation polarization is restricted by the propagation direction of the excitation beam. The fluorescence from the wetting layer provides a guide to align the collection path with respect to the excitation beam. The orthogonality of the excitation and detection modes enables resonant excitation of a single QD with negligible laser scattering background.

Proposed method of optical spin read-out in a quantum dot using the AC stark effect

We propose a method to read-out the spin-state of an electron in a quantum dot in a Voigt geometry magnetic field via cycling transitions induced by the AC Stark effect.

Indistinguishability of single photons from dissimilar single-photon sources

In quantum mechanics, particles in identical states are indistinguishable, giving rise to effects with no classical analog. For instance, the bosonic nature of light insures that upon interference two indistinguishable photons will coalesce into a single inseparable state. Through this coalescence, we demonstrate that photons produced from two separate quantum dots are indistinguishable. Further, we show that single photons created in a fundamentally different process - parametric down-conversion in a nonlinear crystal - can be manipulated to be indistinguishable from those from quantum dots. The quantum interference in both experiments occurs with a visibility reduced from unity because the quantum dot photons are not lifetime-limited due to the presence of pure dephasing. The measured visibility closely matches the theoretical visibility predicted for photons with the parameters of those measured here.