Saniya Deshpande

Electrically driven polarized single-photon emission from an InGaN quantum dot in a GaN nanowire

In a classical light source, such as a laser, the photon number follows a Poissonian distribution. For quantum information processing and metrology applications, a non-classical emitter of single photons is required. A single quantum dot is an ideal source of single photons and such single-photon sources in the visible spectral range have been demonstrated with III-nitride and II-VI-based single quantum dots. It has been suggested that short-wavelength blue single-photon emitters would be useful for free-space quantum cryptography, with the availability of high-speed single-photon detectors in this spectral region. Here we demonstrate blue single-photon emission with electrical injection from an In0.25Ga0.75N quantum dot in a single nanowire. The emitted single photons are linearly polarized along the c axis of the nanowire with a degree of linear polarization of ~70%.

Monolithic Electrically Injected Nanowire Array Edge-Emitting Laser on (001) Silicon

A silicon-based laser, preferably electrically pumped, has long been a scientific and engineering goal. We demonstrate here, for the first time, an edge-emitting InGaN/GaN disk-in-nanowire array electrically pumped laser emitting in the green (λ = 533 nm) on (001) silicon substrate. The devices display excellent dc and dynamic characteristics with values of threshold current density, differential gain, T0 and small signal modulation bandwidth equal to 1.76 kA/cm(2), 3 × 10(-17) cm(2), 232 K, and 5.8 GHz respectively under continuous wave operation. Preliminary reliability measurements indicate a lifetime of 7000 h. The emission wavelength can be tuned by varying the alloy composition in the quantum disks. The monolithic nanowire laser on (001)Si can therefore address wide-ranging applications such as solid state lighting, displays, plastic fiber communication, medical diagnostics, and silicon photonics.

Electrically pumped single-photon emission at room temperature from a single InGaN/GaN quantum dot

We demonstrate a semiconductor quantum dot based electrically pumped single-photon source operating at room temperature. Single photons emitted in the red spectral range from single In0.4Ga0.6N/GaN quantum dots exhibit a second-order correlation value g(2)(0) of 0.29, and fast recombination lifetime ∼1.3 ±0.3 ns at room temperature. The single-photon source can be driven at an excitation repetition rate of 200 MHz.

Formation and Nature of InGaN Quantum Dots in GaN Nanowires

InGaN/GaN disk-in-nanowire heterostructures on silicon substrates have emerged as important gain media for the realization of visible light sources. The nature of quantum confinement in the disks is largely unknown. From the unique nature of the measured temperature dependence of the radiative lifetime and direct transmission electron microscopy, it is evident that such self-organized islands (disks) behave as quantum dots. This is confirmed by the observation of single photon emission from a single disk-in-nanowire and the presence of a sharp minimum in the line width enhancement factor of edge emitting lasers having the InGaN disks as the gain media.

Blue single photon emission up to 200 K from an InGaN quantum dot in AlGaN nanowire

We demonstrate polarized blue single photon emission up to 200 K from an In0.2Ga0.8N quantum dot in a single Al0.1Ga0.9N nanowire. The InGaN/AlGaN dot-in-nanowire heterostructure was grown on (111) silicon by plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy. Nanowires dispersed on a silicon substrate show sharp exciton and biexciton transitions in the micro-photoluminescence spectra. Second-order correlation measurements performed under pulsed excitation at the biexciton wavelength confirm single photon emission, with a g(2)(0) of 0.43 at 200 K. The emitted photons have a short radiative lifetime of 0.7 ns and are linearly polarized along the c-axis of the nanowire with a degree of polarization of 78%.

An electrically driven quantum dot-in-nanowire visible single photon source operating up to 150 K

We demonstrate electrically pumped single photon emission up to 150 K from a single InGaN quantum dot embedded in a GaN nanowire junction diode. The InGaN dot-in-nanowire p-n junctions were grown on silicon by molecular beam epitaxy. The exciton electroluminescence from individual dot-in-nanowires is in the green spectral range (λ ∼ 520 nm) and is detectable up to 150 K. Second order autocorrelation measurements performed at the exciton energy at an ambient temperature of 125 K show a background corrected g(2)(0) equal to 0.35, indicating dominant single photon emission. The steady state nanowire temperature under these conditions is estimated to be 150 K due to Joule heating induced by the large nanowire series resistance. Time resolved photoluminescence measurements yield an exciton radiative lifetime of 1.1 ns.

GaAs-based high temperature electrically pumped polariton laser

Strong coupling effects and polariton lasing are observed at 155 K with an edge-emitting GaAs-based microcavity diode with a single Al0.31Ga0.69As/Al0.41Ga0.59As quantum well as the emitter. The threshold for polariton lasing is observed at 90 A/cm2, accompanied by a reduction of the emission linewidth to 0.85 meV and a blueshift of the emission wavelength by 0.89 meV. Polariton lasing is confirmed by the observation of a polariton population redistribution in momentum space and spatial coherence. Conventional photon lasing is recorded in the same device at higher pump powers.

Site-Controlled Growth of Monolithic InGaAs/InP Quantum Well Nanopillar Lasers on Silicon

In this Letter, we report the site-controlled growth of InP nanolasers on a silicon substrate with patterned SiO2 nanomasks by low-temperature metal-organic chemical vapor deposition, compatible with silicon complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) post-processing. A two-step growth procedure is presented to achieve smooth wurtzite faceting of vertical nanopillars. By incorporating InGaAs multiquantum wells, the nanopillar emission can be tuned over a wide spectral range. Enhanced quality factors of the intrinsic InP nanopillar cavities promote lasing at 0.87 and 1.21 μm, located within two important optical telecommunication bands. This is the first demonstration of a site-controlled III-V nanolaser monolithically integrated on silicon with a silicon-transparent emission wavelength, paving the way for energy-efficient on-chip optical links at typical telecommunication wavelengths.

Small-signal modulation characteristics of a polariton laser

Use of large bandgap materials together with electrical injection makes the polariton laser an attractive low-power coherent light source for medical and biomedical applications or short distance plastic fiber communication at short wavelengths (violet and ultra-violet), where a conventional laser is difficult to realize. The dynamic properties of a polariton laser have not been investigated experimentally. We have measured, for the first time, the small signal modulation characteristics of a GaN-based electrically pumped polariton laser operating at room temperature. A maximum −3 dB modulation bandwidth of 1.18 GHz is measured. The experimental results have been analyzed with a theoretical model based on the Boltzmann kinetic equations and the agreement is very good. We have also investigated frequency chirping during such modulation. Gain compression phenomenon in a polariton laser is interpreted and a value is obtained for the gain compression factor.

High-resolution nonlinear optical spectroscopy of InGaN quantum dots in GaN nanowires

Using frequency-domain nonlinear spectroscopy methods, we find relatively broad (∼20–30  meV) resonances from quantum confined electron–hole pairs in an ensemble of InGaN disks in GaN nanowires that persist without significant broadening up to room temperature in the nonlinear absorption spectrum. Under these growth conditions, we find that the kinetics related to the nonlinear signal are dominated by metastable traps with decay rates of microseconds at low temperatures, as evidenced in part by high-frequency-resolution scans within the broad absorption resonances. The data reveal ultranarrow population pulsation resonances with linewidths that indicate the slow decay rate of the metastable traps.