arXiv subjects

David A. Ritchie

Publications and source records attributed to David A. Ritchie.

51 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2012

Transport Through an Electrostatically Defined Quantum Dot Lattice in a Two-Dimensional Electron Gas

Quantum dot lattices (QDLs) have the potential to allow for the tailoring of optical, magnetic and electronic properties of a user-defined artificial solid. We use a dual gated device structure to controllably tune the potential landscape in a GaAs/AlGaAs two-dimensional electron gas, thereby enabling the formation of a periodic QDL. The current-voltage characteristics, I(V), follow a power law, as expected for a QDL. In addition, a systematic study of the scaling behavior of I(V) allows us to probe the effects of background disorder on transport through the QDL. Our results are particularly important for semiconductor-based QDL architectures which aim to probe collective phenomena.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

On-chip single photon emission from an integrated semiconductor quantum dot into a photonic crystal waveguide

We demonstrate the in-plane emission of highly-polarized single photons from an InAs quantum dot embedded into a photonic crystal waveguide. The spontaneous emission rates are Purcell-enhanced by the coupling of the quantum dot to a slow-light mode of the waveguide. Photon-correlation measurements confirm the sub-Poissonian statistics of the in-plane emission. Under optical pulse excitation, single photon emission rates of up to 19 MHz into the guided mode are demonstrated, which corresponds to a device efficiency of 24%. These results herald the monolithic integration of sources in photonic quantum circuits.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Lasing in planar semiconductor diodes

We present a planar laser diode based on a simple fabrication scheme compatible with virtually any geometry accessible by standard semiconductor lithography technique. We show that our lasers exhibit ~1 GHz -3dB-modulation-bandwidth already in this prototypical implementation. Directions for a significant speed increase are discussed.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Anti-bunched photons from a lateral light-emitting diode

We demonstrate anti-bunched emission from a lateral-light emitting diode. Sub-Poissonian emission statistic, with a g$^{(2)}$(0)=0.7, is achieved at cryogenic temperature in the pulsed low-current regime, by exploiting electron injection through shallow impurities located in the diode depletion region. Thanks to its simple fabrication scheme and to its modulation bandwidth in the GHz range, we believe our devices are an appealing substitute for highly-attenuated lasers in existing quantum-key-distribution systems. Our devices outperform strongly-attenuated lasers in terms of multi-photon emission events and can therefore lead to a significant security improvement in existing quantum key distribution systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Signatures of an Anomalous Nernst Effect in a Mesoscopic Two-Dimensional Electron System

We investigate the Nernst effect in a mesoscopic two-dimensional electron system (2DES) at low magnetic fields, before the onset of Landau level quantization. The overall magnitude of the Nernst signal agrees well with semi-classical predictions. We observe reproducible mesoscopic fluctuations in the signal which diminish significantly with an increase in temperature. We also show that the Nernst effect exhibits an anomalous component which is correlated with an oscillatory Hall effect. This behavior may be able to distinguish between different spin-correlated states in the 2DES.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Giant Stark effect in the emission of single semiconductor quantum dots

We study the quantum-confined Stark effect in single InAs/GaAs quantum dots embedded within a AlGaAs/GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well. By significantly increasing the barrier height we can observe emission from a dot at electric fields of -500 kV/cm, leading to Stark shifts of up to 25 meV. Our results suggest this technique may enable future applications that require self-assembled dots with transitions at the same energy.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Thermoelectric Properties of Electrostatically Tunable Antidot Lattices

We report on the fabrication and characterization of a device which allows the formation of an antidot lattice (ADL) using only electrostatic gating. The antidot potential and Fermi energy of the system can be tuned independently. Well defined commensurability features in magnetoresistance as well as magnetothermopower are obsereved. We show that the thermopower can be used to efficiently map out the potential landscape of the ADL.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Evidence of gate-tunable topological excitations in two-dimensional electron systems

Topological defects are ubiquitous from solid state physics to cosmology, where they drive phase transitions by proliferating as domain walls, monopoles or vortices. As quantum excitations, they often display fractional charge and anyonic statistics, making them relevant to topologically protected quantum computation, but realizing a controlled physical resource for topological excitations has been difficult. Here we report evidence of topological excitations during the localization transition in strongly interacting two-dimensional electron systems (2DESs) in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures. We find the electrical conductivity at low electron densities to follow a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz Thouless (BKT)-like order-disorder transition implying a gate-tunable proliferation of charged topological defects. At low temperatures, a weakening in the temperature dependence of conductivity was observed, and linked to the zero point fluctuations and delocalization of the defects. Our experiments also cast crucial insight on the nature of the ground state in strongly interacting 2DESs in presence of disorder.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Highly enhanced thermopower in two-dimensional electron systems at milliKelvin temperatures

We report experimental observation of an unexpectedly large thermopower in mesoscopic two-dimensional (2D) electron systems on GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures at sub-Kelvin temperatures and zero magnetic field. Unlike conventional non-magnetic high-mobility 2D systems, the thermopower in our devices increases with decreasing temperature below 0.3 K, reaching values in excess of 100 $μ$V/K, thus exceeding the free electron estimate by more than two orders of magnitude. With support from a parallel independent study of the local density of states, we suggest such a phenomenon to be linked to intrinsic localized states and many-body spin correlations in the system.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Cavity-enhanced radiative emission rate in a single-photon-emitting diode operating at 0.5 GHz

We report the observation of a Purcell enhancement in the electroluminescence decay rate of a single quantum dot, embedded in a microcavity light-emitting-diode structure. Lateral confinement of the optical mode was achieved using an annulus of low-refractive-index aluminium oxide, formed by wet oxidation. The same layer acts as a current aperture, reducing the active area of the device without impeding the electrical properties of the p-i-n diode. This allowed single photon electroluminescence to be demonstrated at repetition rates up to 0.5 GHz.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2008

Evolution of entanglement within classical light states

We investigate the evolution of quantum correlations over the lifetime of a multi-photon state. Measurements reveal time-dependent oscillations of the entanglement fidelity for photon pairs created by a single semiconductor quantum dot. The oscillations are attributed to the phase acquired in the intermediate, non-degenerate, exciton-photon state and are consistent with simulations. We conclude that emission of photon pairs by a typical quantum dot with finite polarisation splitting is in fact entangled in a time-evolving state, and not classically correlated as previously regarded.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

Single electron-spin memory with a semiconductor quantum dot

We show storage of the circular polarisation of an optical field, transferring it to the spin-state of an individual electron confined in a single semiconductor quantum dot. The state is subsequently readout through the electronically-triggered emission of a single photon. The emitted photon shares the same polarisation as the initial pulse but has a different energy, making the transfer of quantum information between different physical systems possible. With an applied magnetic field of 2 Tesla, spin memory is preserved for at least 1000 times more than the exciton's radiative lifetime.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

Observation of a two-dimensional spin-lattice in non-magnetic semiconductor heterostructures

Tunable magnetic interactions in high-mobility nonmagnetic semiconductor heterostructures are centrally important to spin-based quantum technologies. Conventionally, this requires incorporation of "magnetic impurities" within the two-dimensional (2D) electron layer of the heterostructures, which is achieved either by doping with ferromagnetic atoms, or by electrostatically printing artificial atoms or quantum dots. Here we report experimental evidence of a third, and intrinsic, source of localized spins in high-mobility GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures, which are clearly observed in the limit of large setback distance (=80 nm) in modulation doping. Local nonequilibrium transport spectroscopy in these systems reveals existence of multiple spins, which are located in a quasi-regular manner in the 2D Fermi sea, and mutually interact at temperatures below 100 milliKelvin via the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) indirect exchange. The presence of such a spin-array, whose microscopic origin appears to be disorder-bound, simulates a 2D lattice-Kondo system with gate-tunable energy scales.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Improved fidelity of triggered entangled photons from single quantum dots

We demonstrate the on-demand emission of polarisation-entangled photon pairs from the biexciton cascade of a single InAs quantum dot embedded in a GaAs/AlAs planar microcavity. Improvements in the sample design blue shifts the wetting layer to reduce the contribution of background light in the measurements. Results presented show that >70% of the detected photon pairs are entangled. The high fidelity of the (|HxxHx>+|VxxVx>)/2^0.5 state that we determine is sufficient to satisfy numerous tests for entanglement. The improved quality of entanglement represents a significant step towards the realisation of a practical quantum dot source compatible with applications in quantum information.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2002

Josephson current in ballistic Nb/InAs/Nb highly transmissive junctions

Highly transmissive ballistic junctions are demonstrated between Nb and the two-dimensional electron gas formed at an InAs/AlSb heterojunction. A reproducible fabrication protocol is presented yielding high critical supercurrent values. Current-voltage characteristics were measured down to 0.4 K and the observed supercurrent behavior was analyzed within a ballistic model in the clean limit. This investigation allows us to demonstrate an intrinsic interface transmissivity approaching 90%. The reproducibility of the fabrication protocol makes it of interest for the experimental study of InAs-based superconductor-semiconductor hybrid devices.

cond-mat.supr-con↗