arXiv subjects

Glenn S. Solomon

Publications and source records attributed to Glenn S. Solomon.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Growth of quantum dots by droplet etching epitaxy in molecular beam epitaxy: theory, practice, and review

GaAs quantum dots grown by droplet etching epitaxy are high-quality solid-state sources of quantum light. Despite implementation in devices that exploit quantum phenomenon, a comprehensive review on the crystal growth of quantum dots grown by droplet etching epitaxy is absent, unlike for other quantum dot growth techniques such as the related droplet epitaxy method or Stranski-Krastanov growth of InAs quantum dots. This review presents a detailed overview of the droplet etching epitaxy growth technique in the molecular beam epitaxy environment, with emphasis on the growth parameters necessary to realize high-quality quantum dots. We systematically cover the three main phases of droplet etching epitaxy - droplet deposition, droplet etching, and nanohole regrowth - and relate experimental results to theories on crystal growth. The review concludes with an introduction to GaAs quantum dot photoluminescence and the extension of droplet etching epitaxy beyond the AlGaAs/GaAs material system.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

Optical pumping of electronic quantum Hall states with vortex light

A fundamental requirement for quantum technologies is the ability to coherently control the interaction between electrons and photons. However, in many scenarios involving the interaction between light and matter, the exchange of linear or angular momentum between electrons and photons is not feasible, a condition known as the dipole-approximation limit. An example of a case beyond this limit that has remained experimentally elusive is when the interplay between chiral electrons and vortex light is considered, where the orbital angular momentum of light can be transferred to electrons. Here, we present a novel mechanism for such an orbital angular momentum transfer from optical vortex beams to electronic quantum Hall states. Specifically, we identify a robust contribution to the radial photocurrent, in an annular graphene sample within the quantum Hall regime, that depends on the vorticity of light. This phenomenon can be interpreted as an optical pumping scheme, where the angular momentum of photons is transferred to electrons, generating a radial current, and the current direction is determined by the vorticity of the light. Our findings offer fundamental insights into the optical probing and manipulation of quantum coherence, with wide-ranging implications for advancing quantum coherent optoelectronics.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

Filter-free single-photon quantum dot resonance fluorescence in an integrated cavity-waveguide device

Semiconductor quantum dots embedded in micro-pillar cavities are excellent emitters of single photons when pumped resonantly. Often, the same spatial mode is used to both resonantly excite a quantum dot and to collect the emitted single photons, requiring cross-polarization to reduce the uncoupled scattered laser light. This inherently reduces the source brightness to 50 %. Critically, for some quantum applications the total efficiency from generation to detection must be over 50 %. Here, we demonstrate a resonant-excitation approach to creating single photons that is free of any cross-polarization, and in fact any filtering whatsoever. It potentially increases single-photon rates and collection efficiencies, and simplifies operation. This integrated device allows us to resonantly excite single quantum-dot states in several cavities in the plane of the device using connected waveguides, while the cavity-enhanced single-photon fluorescence is directed vertical (off-chip) in a Gaussian mode. We expect this design to be a prototype for larger chip-scale quantum photonics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Observation of chiral photocurrent transport in the quantum Hall regime in graphene

Optical excitation provides a powerful tool to investigate non-equilibrium physics in quantum Hall systems. Moreover, the length scale associated with photo-excited charge carries lies between that of local probes and global transport measurements. Here, we investigate non-equilibrium physics of optically-excited charge carriers in graphene through photocurrent measurements in the integer quantum Hall regime. We observe that the photocurrent oscillates as a function of Fermi level, revealing the Landau-level quantization, and that the photocurrent oscillations are different for Fermi levels near and distant from the Dirac point. Our observation qualitatively agrees with a model that assumes the photocurrent is dominated by chiral edge transport of non-equilibrium carriers. Our experimental results are consistent with electron and hole chiralities being the same when the Fermi level is distant from the Dirac point, and opposite when near the Dirac point.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Charging dynamics of single InAs quantum dots under both resonant and above-band excitation

We investigate the charging dynamics in epitaxially grown InAs quantum dots under resonant excitation with and without additional low-power above-band excitation. Time-resolved resonance fluorescence from a charged exciton (trion) transition is recorded as the above-band excitation is modulated on and off. The fluorescence intensity varies as the QD changes from charged to neutral and back due to the influence of the above-band excitation. We fit the transients of the time-resolved resonance fluorescence with models that represent the charging and neutralization processes. The time dependence of the transients indicate that Auger recombination of resonantly excited trions is largely responsible for neutralization of the charged state when the above-band excitation is off. The addition of above-band excitation revives the resonance fluorescence signal from the trion transition. We conclude that the above-band laser excites charges that relax into the bound state of the quantum dot via two different charge transport processes. The captured charges return the QD to its initial charge state and allow resonant excitation of the trion transition. The time dependence of one charge transport process is consistent with ballistic transport of charge carriers excited non-local to the QD via above-band excitation. We attribute the second charge transport process to carrier migration through a stochastic collection of weakly-binding sites, resulting in sub-diffusion-like dynamics.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Cavity-enhanced optical readout of a single solid-state spin

We demonstrate optical readout of a single electron spin using cavity quantum electrodynamics. The spin is trapped in a single quantum dot that is strongly coupled to a nanophotonic cavity. Selectively coupling one of the optical transitions of the quantum dot to the cavity mode results in a spin-dependent cavity reflectivity that enables projective spin measurements by monitoring the reflected intensity of an incident optical field. Using this approach, we demonstrate spin readout fidelity of 0.61 for a quantum dot that has a poor branching ratio of 0.43. Achieving this fidelity using resonance fluorescence from a bare dot would require 43 times improvement in photon collection efficiency.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

A single-photon switch and transistor enabled by a solid-state quantum memory

Single-photon switches and transistors generate strong photon-photon interactions that are essential for quantum circuits and networks. However, to deterministically control an optical signal with a single photon requires strong interactions with a quantum memory, which have been lacking in a solid-state platform. We realize a single-photon switch and transistor enabled by a solid-state quantum memory. Our device consists of a semiconductor spin qubit strongly coupled to a nanophotonic cavity. The spin qubit enables a single gate photon to switch a signal field containing up to an average of 27.7 photons, with a switching time of 63 ps. Our results show that semiconductor nanophotonic devices can produce strong and controlled photon-photon interactions that could enable high-bandwidth photonic quantum information processing.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

Interfacing a quantum dot with a spontaneous parametric down-conversion source

Quantum networks require interfacing stationary and flying qubits. These flying qubits are usually nonclassical states of light. Here we consider two of the leading source technologies for nonclassical light, spontaneous parametric down-conversion and single semiconductor quantum dots. Down-conversion delivers high-grade entangled photon pairs, whereas quantum dots excel at producing single photons. We report on an experiment that joins these two technologies and investigates the conditions under which optimal interference between these dissimilar light sources may be achieved.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

Simultaneous, full characterization of a single-photon state using semiconductor quantum-dot light

As single-photon sources become more mature and are used more often in quantum information, communications and measurement applications, their characterization becomes more important. Single-photon-like light is often characterized by its brightness, and two quantum properties: the single-photon composition and the photon indistinguishability. While it is desirable to obtain these quantities from a single measurement, currently two or more measurements are required. Here, we simultaneously determine the brightness, the single photon purity, the indistinguishability, and the statistical distribution of Fock states to third order for a quantum light source. The measurement uses a pair of two-photon (n = 2) number-resolving detectors. n > 2 number-resolving detectors provide no additional advantage in the single-photon characterization. The new method extracts more information per experimental trial than a conventional measurement for all input states, and is particularly more e cient for statistical mixtures of photon states. Thus, using this n=2, number- resolving detector scheme will provide advantages in a variety of quantum optics measurements and systems.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Polarization-dependent interference between dipole moments of a resonantly excited quantum dot

Resonant photoluminescence excitation (RPLE) spectra of a neutral InGaAs quantum dot show an unconventional line-shape that depends on the detection polarization. We characterize this phenomenon by performing polarization-dependent RPLE measurements and simulating the measured spectra with a 3-level quantum model. This analysis enables us to extract the coherence between the two exciton states from the measured spectra. The good agreement between the data and model indicates that the interference between coherent scatterings from both fine structure split exciton states is the key to understanding this phenomenon.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Effects of photo-neutralization on the emission properties of quantum dots

In this paper we investigate the coherence properties of a quantum dot under two-photon resonant excitation in combination with an additional photo-neutralization laser. The photo-neutralization increases the efficiency of the excitation process and thus, the brightness of the source, by a factor of approximately 1.5 for biexciton-exciton pairs. This enhancement does not degrade the relevant coherences in the system; neither the single photon coherence time, nor the coherence of the excitation process.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

A quantum phase switch between a single solid-state spin and a photon

Strong interactions between single spins and photons are essential for quantum networks and distributed quantum computation. They provide the necessary interface for entanglement distribution, non-destructive quantum measurements, and strong photon-photon interactions. Achieving spin-photon interactions in a solid-state device could enable compact chip-integrated quantum circuits operating at gigahertz bandwidths. Many theoretical works have suggested using spins embedded in nanophotonic structures to attain this high-speed interface. These proposals exploit strong light-matter interactions to implement a quantum switch, where the spin flips the state of the photon and a photon flips the spin-state. However, such a switch has not yet been realized using a solid-state spin system. Here, we report an experimental realization of a spin-photon quantum switch using a single solid-state spin embedded in a nanophotonic cavity. We show that the spin-state strongly modulates the cavity reflection coefficient, which conditionally flips the polarization state of a reflected photon on picosecond timescales. We also demonstrate the complementary effect where a single photon reflected from the cavity coherently rotates the spin. These strong spin-photon interactions open up a promising direction for solid-state implementations of high-speed quantum networks and on-chip quantum information processors using nanophotonic devices.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Coherence and degree of time-bin entanglement from quantum dots

We report on the generation of time-bin entangled photon pairs from a semiconductor quantum dot via pulsed resonant biexciton generation. Based on theoretical modeling we optimized the duration of the excitation pulse to minimize the laser-induced dephasing and increase the biexciton-to-background single exciton occupation probability. This results in a high degree of entanglement with a concurrence of up to 0.78(6) and a 0.88(3) overlap with a maximally entangled state. Theoretical simulations also indicate a power dependent nature of the dephasing during the laser excitation that limits the coherence of the excitation process.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

An Optical Spin Read-out Method for a Quantum Dot using the AC Stark Effect

We propose a method to read-out the spin-state of an electron in a quantum dot in a Voigt geometry magnetic field using cycling transitions induced by the AC Stark effect. We show that cycling transitions can be made possible by a red-detuned, circularly-polarized laser, which modifies the spin eigenstates and polarization selection rules via the AC Stark effect. A Floquet-Liouville supermatrix approach is used to calculate the time-evolution of the density matrix under the experimental conditions of a spin read-out operation. With an overall detection efficiency of 2.5%, the read-out is a single-shot measurement with a fidelity of 76.2%.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Pump-Controlled Modal Interactions in Microdisk Lasers

We demonstrate an effective control of nonlinear interactions of lasing modes in a semiconductor microdisk cavity by shaping the pump profile. A target mode is selected at the expense of its competing modes either by increasing their lasing thresholds or suppressing their power slopes above the lasing threshold. Despite of strong spatial overlap of the lasing modes at the disk boundary, adaptive pumping enables an efficient selection of any lasing mode to be the dominant one, leading to a switch of lasing frequency. The theoretical analysis illustrates both linear and nonlinear effects of selective pumping, and quantify their contributions to lasing mode selection. This work shows that adaptive pumping not only provides a powerful tool of controlling the nonlinear process in multimode lasers, but also enables the tuning of lasing characteristic after the lasers have been fabricated.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2014

Topological defect lasers

We demonstrate topological defect lasers in a GaAs membrane with embedded InAs quantum dots. By introducing a disclination to a square-lattice of elliptical air holes, we obtain spatially confined optical resonances with high quality factor. Such resonances support powerflow vortices, and lase upon optical excitation of quantum dots, embedded in the structure. The spatially inhomogeneous variation of the unit cell orientation adds another dimension to the control of a lasing mode, enabling the manipulation of its field pattern and energy flow landscape.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2014

Quantum non-Gaussian Depth of Single-Photon States

We introduce and experimentally explore the concept of quantum non-Gaussian depth of single-photon states with a positive Wigner function. The depth measures the robustness of a single-photon state against optical losses. The directly witnessed quantum non-Gaussianity withstands significant attenuation, exhibiting a depth of 18 dB, while the nonclassicality remains unchanged. Quantum non-Gaussian depth is an experimentally approachable quantity that is much more robust than the negativity of the Wigner function. Furthermore, we use it to reveal significant differences between otherwise strongly nonclassical single-photon sources.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

All-optical coherent control of vacuum Rabi oscillations

When an atom strongly couples to a cavity, it can undergo coherent vacuum Rabi oscillations. Controlling these oscillatory dynamics quickly relative to the vacuum Rabi frequency enables remarkable capabilities such as Fock state generation and deterministic synthesis of quantum states of light, as demonstrated using microwave frequency devices. At optical frequencies, however, dynamical control of single-atom vacuum Rabi oscillations remains challenging. Here, we demonstrate coherent transfer of optical frequency excitation between a single quantum dot and a cavity by controlling vacuum Rabi oscillations. We utilize a photonic molecule to simultaneously attain strong coupling and a cavity-enhanced AC Stark shift. The Stark shift modulates the detuning between the two systems on picosecond timescales, faster than the vacuum Rabi frequency. We demonstrate the ability to add and remove excitation from the cavity, and perform coherent control of light-matter states. These results enable ultra-fast control of atom-cavity interactions in a nanophotonic device platform.

physics.optics↗