No Arabic abstract
The properties of an unconventional, single mode phonon bath coupled to a quantum dot, are investigated within the rotating wave approximation. The electron current through the dot induces an out of equilibrium bath, with a phonon distribution qualitatively different from the thermal one. In selected transport regimes, such a distribution is characterized by a peculiar selective population of few phonon modes and can exhibit a sub-Poissonian behavior. It is shown that such a sub-Poissonian behavior is favored by a double occupancy of the dot. The crossover from a unequilibrated to a conventional thermal bath is explored, and the limitations of the rotating wave approximation are discussed.
We have realized a hybrid solid-state quantum device in which a single-electron semiconductor double quantum dot is dipole coupled to a superconducting microwave frequency transmission line resonator. The dipolar interaction between the two entities manifests itself via dispersive and dissipative effects observed as frequency shifts and linewidth broadenings of the photonic mode respectively. A Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian master equation calculation is used to model the combined system response and allows for determining both the coherence properties of the double quantum dot and its interdot tunnel coupling with high accuracy. The value and uncertainty of the tunnel coupling extracted from the microwave read-out technique are compared to a standard quantum point contact charge detection analysis. The two techniques are found to be consistent with a superior precision for the microwave experiment when tunneling rates approach the resonator eigenfrequency. Decoherence properties of the double dot are further investigated as a function of the number of electrons inside the dots. They are found to be similar in the single-electron and many-electron regimes suggesting that the density of the confinement energy spectrum plays a minor role in the decoherence rate of the system under investigation.
We present an approximate analytic expression for the photoluminescence spectral function of a model polariton system, which describes a quantum dot, with a finite number of fermionic levels, strongly interacting with the lowest photon mode of a pillar microcavity. Energy eigenvalues and wavefunctions of the electron-hole-photon system are obtained by numerically diagonalizing the Hamiltonian. Pumping and photon losses through the cavity mirrors are described with a master equation, which is solved in order to determine the stationary density matrix. The photon first-order correlation function, from which the spectral function is found, is computed with the help of the Quantum Regression Theorem. The spectral function qualitatively describes the polariton lasing regime in the model, corresponding to pumping rates two orders of magnitude lower than those needed for ordinary (photon) lasing. The second-order coherence functions for the photon and the electron-hole subsystems are computed as functions of the pumping rate.
The interplay of optical driving and hyperfine interaction between an electron confined in a quantum dot and its surrounding nuclear spin environment produces a range of interesting physics such as mode-locking. In this work, we go beyond the ubiquitous spin 1/2 approximation for nuclear spins and present a comprehensive theoretical framework for an optically driven electron spin in a self-assembled quantum dot coupled to a nuclear spin bath of arbitrary spin. Using a dynamical mean-field approach, we compute the nuclear spin polarization distribution with and without the quadrupolar coupling. We find that while hyperfine interactions drive dynamic nuclear polarization and mode-locking, quadrupolar couplings counteract these effects. The tension between these mechanisms is imprinted on the steady-state electron spin evolution, providing a way to measure the importance of quadrupolar interactions in a quantum dot. Our results show that higher-spin effects such as quadrupolar interactions can have a significant impact on the generation of dynamic nuclear polarization and how it influences the electron spin evolution.
We demonstrate the effects of cavity quantum electrodynamics for a quantum dot coupled to a photonic molecule, consisting of a pair of coupled photonic crystal cavities. We show anti-crossing between the quantum dot and the two super-modes of the photonic molecule, signifying achievement of the strong coupling regime. From the anti-crossing data, we estimate the contributions of both mode-coupling and intrinsic detuning to the total detuning between the super-modes. Finally, we also show signatures of off-resonant cavity-cavity interaction in the photonic molecule.
We study the fundamental limit on single-photon indistinguishability imposed by decoherence due to phonon interactions in semiconductor quantum dot-cavity QED systems. Employing an exact diagonalization approach we find large differences compared to standard methods. An important finding is that short-time non-Markovian effects limit the maximal attainable indistinguishability. The results are explained using a polariton picture that yields valuable insight into the phonon-induced dephasing dynamics.