No Arabic abstract
The dark exciton state in semiconductor quantum dots constitutes a long-lived solid-state qubit which has the potential to play an important role in implementations of solid-state based quantum information architectures. In this work, we exploit deterministically fabricated QD microlenses with enhanced photon extraction, to optically prepare and readout the dark exciton spin and observe its coherent precession. The optical access to the dark exciton is provided via spin-blockaded metastable biexciton states acting as heralding state, which are identified deploying polarization-sensitive spectroscopy as well as time-resolved photon cross-correlation experiments. Our experiments reveal a spin-precession period of the dark exciton of $(0.82pm0.01),$ns corresponding to a fine-structure splitting of $(5.0pm0.7),mu$eV between its eigenstates $left|uparrowUparrowpmdownarrowDownarrowrightrangle$. By exploiting microlenses deterministically fabricated above pre-selected QDs, our work demonstrates the possibility to scale up implementations of quantum information processing schemes using the QD-confined dark exciton spin qubit, such as the generation of photonic cluster states or the realization of a solid-state-based quantum memory.
We demonstrate control over the spin state of a semiconductor quantum dot exciton using a polarized picosecond laser pulse slightly detuned from a biexciton resonance. The control pulse follows an earlier pulse, which generates an exciton and initializes its spin state as a coherent superposition of its two non-degenerate eigenstates. The control pulse preferentially couples one component of the exciton state to the biexciton state, thereby rotating the excitons spin direction. We detect the rotation by measuring the polarization of the exciton spectral line as a function of the time-difference between the two pulses. We show experimentally and theoretically how the angle of rotation depends on the detuning of the second pulse from the biexciton resonance.
Developing future quantum communication may rely on the ability to engineer cavity-mediated interactions between photons and solid-state artificial atoms, in a deterministic way. Here, we report a set of technological and experimental developments for the deterministic coupling between the optical mode of a micropillar cavity and a quantum dot trion transition. We first identify a charged transition through in-plane magnetic field spectroscopy, and then tune the optical cavity mode to its energy via in-situ lithography. In addition, we design an asymmetric tunneling barrier to allow the optical trapping of the charge, assisted by a quasi-resonant pumping scheme, in order to control its occupation probability. We evaluate the generation of a positively-charged quantum dot through second order auto-correlation measurements of its resonance fluorescence, and the quality of light-matter interaction for these spin-photon interfaces is assessed by measuring the performance of the device as a single-photon source.
We study the dark excitons behavior as a coherent physical two-level spin system (qubit) using an external magnetic field in the Faraday configuration. Our studies are based on polarization-sensitive intensity autocorrelation measurements of the optical transition resulting from the recombination of a spin-blockaded biexciton state, which heralds the dark exciton and its spin state. We demonstrate control over the dark exciton eigenstates without degrading its decoherence time. Our observations agree well with computational predictions based on a master equation model.
A strong, far-detuned laser can shift the energy levels of an optically active quantum system via the AC Stark effect. We demonstrate that the polarization of the laser results in a spin-selective modification to the energy structure of a charged quantum dot, shifting one spin manifold but not the other. An additional shift occurs due to the Overhauser field of the nuclear spins, which are pumped into a partially polarized state. This mechanism offers a potentially rapid, reversible, and coherent control of the energy structure and polarization selection rules of a charged quantum dot.
We demonstrate that the quantum dot-confined dark exciton forms a long-lived integer spin solid state qubit which can be deterministically on-demand initiated in a pure state by one optical pulse. Moreover, we show that this qubit can be fully controlled using short optical pulses, which are several orders of magnitude shorter than the life and coherence times of the qubit. Our demonstrations do not require an externally applied magnetic field and they establish that the quantum dot-confined dark exciton forms an excellent solid state matter qubit with some advantages over the half-integer spin qubits such as the confined electron and hole, separately. Since quantum dots are semiconductor nanostructures that allow integration of electronic and photonic components, the dark exciton may have important implications on implementations of quantum technologies consisting of semiconductor qubits.