No Arabic abstract
Semiconductor quantum dots are considered to be the leading venue for fabricating on-demand sources of single photons. However, the generation of long-lived dark excitons imposes significant limits on the efficiency of these sources. We demonstrate a technique that optically pumps the dark exciton population and converts it to a bright exciton population, using intermediate excited biexciton states. We show experimentally that our method considerably reduces the DE population while doubling the triggered bright exciton emission, approaching thereby near-unit fidelity of quantum dot depletion.
We propose a scheme to efficiently couple a single quantum dot electron spin to an optical nano-cavity, which enables us to simultaneously benefit from a cavity as an efficient photonic interface, as well as to perform high fidelity (nearly 100%) spin initialization and manipulation achievable in bulk semiconductors. Moreover, the presence of the cavity speeds up the spin initialization process beyond GHz.
We experimentally investigate the dynamic nonlinear response of a single quantum dot (QD) strongly coupled to a photonic crystal cavity-waveguide structure. The temporal response is measured by pump-probe excitation where a control pulse propagating through the waveguide is used to create an optical Stark shift on the QD, resulting in a large modification of the cavity reflectivity. This optically induced cavity reflectivity modification switches the propagation direction of a detuned signal pulse. Using this device we demonstrate all-optical switching with only 14 attojoules of control pulse energy. The response time of the switch is measured to be up to 8.4 GHz, which is primarily limited by the cavity-QD interaction strength.
We propose a device for studying the Fermi-Hubbard model with long-range Coulomb interactions using an array of quantum dots defined in a semiconductor two-dimensional electron gas system. Bands with energies above the lowest energy band are used to form the Hubbard model, which allows for an experimentally simpler realization of the device. We find that depending on average electron density, the system is well described by a one- or two-band Hubbard model. Our device design enables the control of the ratio of the Coulomb interaction to the kinetic energy of the electrons independently to the filling of the quantum dots, such that a large portion of the Hubbard phase diagram may be probed. Estimates of the Hubbard parameters suggest that a metal-Mott insulator quantum phase transition and a d-wave superconducting phase should be observable using current fabrication technologies.
We investigate pump-induced exciton inversion in a quantum-dot cavity system with continuous wave drive. Using a polaron-based master equation, we demonstrate excited-state populations above 0.9 for an InAs dot at a phonon bath temperature of 4K. In an exciton-driven system, the dominant mechanism is incoherent excitation from the phonon bath. For cavity driving, the mechanism is phonon-mediated switching between ground- and excited-state branches of the ladder of photon states, as quantum trajectory simulations clearly show. The exciton inversion as a function of detuning is found to be qualitatively different for exciton and cavity driving, primarily due to cavity filtering. The master equation approach allows us to include important radiative and non-radiative decay processes on the zero phonon line, provides a clear underlying dynamic in terms of photon and phonon scattering, and admits simple analytical approximations that help to explain the physics.
The process of tunneling injection is known to improve the dynamical characteristics of quantum well and quantum dot lasers; in the latter, it also improves the temperature performance. The advantage of the tunneling injection process stems from the fact that it avoids hot carrier injection, which is a key performance-limiting factor in all semiconductor lasers. The tunneling injection process is not fully understood microscopically and therefore it is difficult to optimize those laser structures. We present here a numerical study of the broad band carrier dynamics in a tunneling injection quantum dot gain medium in the form of an optical amplifier operating at 1.55 um. Charge carrier tunneling occurs in a hybrid state that joins the quantum dot first excited state and the confined quantum well - injection well states. The hybrid state, which is placed energetically roughly one LO phonon above the ground state and has a spectral extent of about 5 meV , dominates the carrier injection to the ground state. We calculate the dynamical response of the inversion across the entire gain spectrum following a short pulse perturbation at various wavelengths and for two bias currents. At a high bias of 200 mA, the entire spectrum exhibits gain; at 30 mA, the system exhibits a mixed gain - absorption spectrum. The carrier dynamics in the injection well is calculated simultaneously. We discuss the role of the pulse excitation wavelengths relative to the gain spectrum peak and demonstrate that the injection well responds to all perturbation wavelengths, even those which are far from the region where the tunneling injection process dominates.