arXiv subjects

Kai Müller

Publications and source records attributed to Kai Müller.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Self-homodyne enabled generation of indistinguishable photons

The rapid generation of non-classical light serves as the foundation for exploring quantum optics and developing applications such as secure communication or generation of NOON-states. While strongly coupled quantum dot-photonic crystal resonator systems have great potential as non-classical light sources due to their promise of tailored output statistics, the generation of indistinguishable photons has been obscured due to the strongly dissipative nature of such systems. Here, we demonstrate that the recently discovered self-homodyne suppression technique can be used to overcome this limitation and tune the quantum statistics of transmitted light, achieving indistinguishable photon emission competitive with state-of-the-art metrics. Furthermore, our nanocavity-based platform directly lends itself to scalable on-chip architectures for quantum information.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Self-homodyne measurement of a dynamic Mollow triplet in the solid state

The study of light-matter interaction at the quantum scale has been enabled by the cavity quantum electrodynamics (CQED) architecture, in which a quantum two-level system strongly couples to a single cavity mode. Originally implemented with atoms in optical cavities, CQED effects are now also observed with artificial atoms in solid-state environments. Such realizations of these systems exhibit fast dynamics, which makes them attractive candidates for devices including modulators and sources in high-throughput communications. However, these systems possess large photon out-coupling rates that obscure any quantum behavior at large excitation powers. Here, we have utilised a self-homodyning interferometric technique that fully employs the complex mode structure of our nanofabricated cavity to observe a quantum phenomenon known as the dynamic Mollow triplet. We expect this interference to facilitate the development of arbitrary on-chip quantum state generators, thereby strongly influencing quantum lithography, metrology, and imaging.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Initialization of a spin qubit in a site-controlled nanowire quantum dot

A fault-tolerant quantum repeater or quantum computer using solid-state spin-based quantum bits will likely require a physical implementation with many spins arranged in a grid. Self-assembled quantum dots (QDs) have been established as attractive candidates for building spin-based quantum information processing devices, but such QDs are randomly positioned, which makes them unsuitable for constructing large-scale processors. Recent efforts have shown that quantum dots embedded in nanowires can be deterministically positioned in regular arrays, can store single charges, and have excellent optical properties, but so far there have been no demonstrations of spin qubit operations using nanowire quantum dots. Here we demonstrate optical pumping of individual spins trapped in site-controlled nanowire quantum dots, resulting in high-fidelity spin-qubit initialization. This represents the next step towards establishing spins in nanowire quantum dots as quantum memories suitable for use in a large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer or repeater based on all-optical control of the spin qubits.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Complete Coherent Control of a Quantum Dot Strongly Coupled to a Nanocavity

Strongly coupled quantum dot-cavity systems provide a non-linear configuration of hybridized light-matter states with promising quantum-optical applications. Here, we investigate the coherent interaction between strong laser pulses and quantum dot-cavity polaritons. Resonant excitation of polaritonic states and their interaction with phonons allow us to observe coherent Rabi oscillations and Ramsey fringes. Furthermore, we demonstrate complete coherent control of a quantum dot-photonic crystal cavity based quantum-bit. By controlling the excitation power and phase in a two-pulse excitation scheme we achieve access to the full Bloch sphere. Quantum-optical simulations are in good agreement with our experiments and provide insight into the decoherence mechanisms.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Stark effect spectroscopy of mono- and few-layer MoS$_{2}$

We demonstrate electrical control of the A-exciton interband transition in mono- and few-layer $MoS_{2}$ crystals embedded into photocapacitor devices via the DC Stark effect. Electric field dependent low-temperature photoluminescence spectroscopy reveals a significant tuneability of the A-exciton transition energy, up to $\sim 16 meV$, from which we extract the mean DC exciton polarisability $<\barβ>_{N} = (0.58 \pm 0.25) \cdot 10^{-8} DmV^{-1}$. The exciton polarisability is shown to be layer-independent, indicating a strong localisation of both electron and hole wave functions in each individual layer.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Quantum Fingerprints in Higher Order Correlators of a Spin Qubit

The spin of an electron in a semiconductor quantum dot represents a natural nanoscale solid state qubit. Coupling to nuclear spins leads to decoherence that limits the number of allowed quantum logic operations for this qubit. Traditional approach to characterize decoherence is to explore spin Relaxation and the spin echo, which are equivalent to the studies of the spins 2nd order time-correlator at various external conditions. Here we develop an alternative technique by showing that considerable information about dynamics can be obtained from direct measurements of higher than the 2nd order correlators, which to date have been hindered in semiconductor quantum dots. We show that such correlators are sensitive to pure quantum effects that cannot be explained within the classical framework, and which allow direct determination of ensemble and quantum dephasing times with only repeated projective measurements without the need for coherent spin control. Our method enables studies of pure quantum effects, including tests of the Leggett-Garg type inequalities that rule out local hidden variable interpretation of the spin qubit dynamics.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Hybrid Group IV Nanophotonic Structures Incorporating Diamond Silicon-Vacancy Color Centers

We demonstrate a new approach for engineering group IV semiconductor-based quantum photonic structures containing negatively charged silicon-vacancy (SiV$^-$) color centers in diamond as quantum emitters. Hybrid SiC/diamond structures are realized by combining the growth of nanoand micro-diamonds on silicon carbide (3C or 4H polytype) substrates, with the subsequent use of these diamond crystals as a hard mask for pattern transfer. SiV$^-$ color centers are incorporated in diamond during its synthesis from molecular diamond seeds (diamondoids), with no need for ionimplantation or annealing. We show that the same growth technique can be used to grow a diamond layer controllably doped with SiV$^-$ on top of a high purity bulk diamond, in which we subsequently fabricate nanopillar arrays containing high quality SiV$^-$ centers. Scanning confocal photoluminescence measurements reveal optically active SiV$^-$ lines both at room temperature and low temperature (5 K) from all fabricated structures, and, in particular, very narrow linewidths and small inhomogeneous broadening of SiV$^-$ lines from all-diamond nano-pillar arrays, which is a critical requirement for quantum computation. At low temperatures (5 K) we observe in these structures the signature typical of SiV$^-$ centers in bulk diamond, consistent with a double lambda. These results indicate that high quality color centers can be incorporated into nanophotonic structures synthetically with properties equivalent to those in bulk diamond, thereby opening opportunities for applications in classical and quantum information processing.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

Dynamic acousto-mechanical control of a strongly coupled photonic molecule

Two-dimensional photonic crystal membranes provide a versatile planar architecture for integrated photonics to control the propagation of light on a chip employing high quality optical cavities, waveguides, beamsplitters or dispersive elements. When combined with highly non-linear quantum emitters, quantum photonic networks operating at the single photon level come within reach. Towards large-scale quantum photonic networks, selective dynamic control of individual components and deterministic interactions between different constituents are of paramount importance. This indeed calls for switching speeds ultimately on the system's native timescales. For example, manipulation via electric fields or all-optical means have been employed for switching in nanophotonic circuits and cavity quantum electrodynamics studies. Here, we demonstrate dynamic control of the coherent interaction between two coupled photonic crystal nanocavities forming a photonic molecule. By using an electrically generated radio frequency surface acoustic wave we achieve optomechanical tuning, demonstrate operating speeds more than three orders of magnitude faster than resonant mechanical approaches. Moreover, the tuning range is large enough to compensate for the inherent fabrication-related cavity mode detuning. Our findings open a route towards nanomechanically gated protocols, which hitherto have inhibited the realization in all-optical schemes.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Ultrafast polariton-phonon dynamics of strongly coupled quantum dot-nanocavity systems

We investigate the influence of exciton-phonon coupling on the dynamics of a strongly coupled quantum dot-photonic crystal cavity system and explore the effects of this interaction on different schemes for non-classical light generation. By performing time-resolved measurements, we map out the detuning-dependent polariton lifetime and extract the spectrum of the polariton-to-phonon coupling with unprecedented precision. Photon-blockade experiments for different pulse-length and detuning conditions (supported by quantum optical simulations) reveal that achieving high-fidelity photon blockade requires an intricate understanding of the phonons' influence on the system dynamics. Finally, we achieve direct coherent control of the polariton states of a strongly coupled system and demonstrate that their efficient coupling to phonons can be exploited for novel concepts in high-fidelity single photon generation.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Coherent generation of nonclassical light on chip via detuned photon blockade

The on-chip generation of non-classical states of light is a key-requirement for future optical quantum hardware. In solid-state cavity quantum electrodynamics, such non-classical light can be generated from self-assembled quantum dots strongly coupled to photonic crystal cavities. Their anharmonic strong light-matter interaction results in large optical nonlinearities at the single photon level, where the admission of a single photon into the cavity may enhance (photon-tunnelling) or diminish (photon-blockade) the probability for a second photon to enter the cavity. Here, we demonstrate that detuning the cavity and QD resonances enables the generation of high-purity non-classical light from strongly coupled systems. For specific detunings we show that not only the purity but also the efficiency of single-photon generation increases significantly, making high-quality single-photon generation by photon-blockade possible with current state-of-the-art samples.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Visible Photoluminescence from Cubic (3C) Silicon Carbide Microdisks Coupled to High Quality Whispering Gallery Modes

We present the design, fabrication and characterization of cubic (3C) silicon carbide microdisk resonators with high quality factor modes at visible and near infrared wavelengths (600 - 950 nm). Whispering gallery modes with quality factors as high as 2,300 and corresponding mode volumes V ~ 2 (λ/n)^3 are measured using laser scanning confocal microscopy at room temperature. We obtain excellent correspondence between transverse-magnetic (TM) and transverse-electric (TE) polarized resonances simulated using Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method and those observed in experiment. These structures based on ensembles of optically active impurities in 3C-SiC resonators could play an important role in diverse applications of nonlinear and quantum photonics, including low power optical switching and quantum memories.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2014

Dissipative preparation of the exciton and biexciton in a self-assembled quantum dot on picosecond timescales

Pulsed resonant fluorescence is used to probe ultrafast phonon-assisted exciton and biexciton preparation in individual self-assembled InGaAs quantum dots. By driving the system using large area ($\geq10π$) near resonant optical pulses, we experimentally demonstrate how phonon mediated dissipation within the manifold of dressed excitonic states can be used to prepare the neutral exciton with a fidelity $\geq 70\%$. By comparing the phonon-assisted preparation with resonant Rabi oscillations we show that the phonon-mediated process provides the higher fidelity preparation for large pulse areas and is less sensitive to pulse area variations. Moreover, by detuning the laser with respect to the exciton transition we map out the spectral density for exciton coupling to the bulk LA-phonon continuum. Similar phonon mediated processes are shown to facilitate direct biexciton preparation via two photon biexciton absorption, with fidelities $>80\%$. Our results are found to be in very good quantitative agreement with simulations that model the quantum dot-phonon bath interactions with Bloch-Redfield theory.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

On-chip generation, routing and detection of quantum light

Semiconductor based photonic information technologies are rapidly being pushed to the quantum limit where non-classical states of light can be generated, manipulated and exploited in prototypical quantum optical circuits. Here, we report the on-chip generation of quantum light from individual, resonantly excited self-assembled InGaAs quantum dots, efficient routing over length scales $\geq 1$ mm via GaAs ridge waveguides and in-situ detection using evanescently coupled integrated NbN superconducting single photon detectors fabricated on the same chip. By temporally filtering the time-resolved luminescence signal stemming from single, resonantly excited quantum dots we use the prototypical quantum optical circuit to perform time-resolved excitation spectroscopy on single dots and demonstrate resonant fluorescence with a line-width of $10 \pm 1 \ μ$eV; key elements needed for the use of single photons in prototypical quantum photonic circuits.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Highly directed emission from self-assembled quantum dots into guided modes in disordered photonic crystal waveguides

We explore the dynamics and directionality of spontaneous emission from self-assembled In(Ga)As quantum dots into TE-polarised guided modes in GaAs two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguides. The local group velocity of the guided waveguide mode is probed, with values as low as $\sim 1.5\%\times c$ measured close to the slow-light band edge. By performing complementary continuous wave and time-resolved measurements with detection along, and perpendicular to the waveguide axis we probe the fraction of emission into the waveguide mode ($β$-factor). For dots randomly positioned within the unit cell of the photonic crystal waveguide our results show that the emission rate varies from $\geq 1.55$ $ns^{-1}$ close to the slow-light band edge to $\leq 0.25$ $ns^{-1}$ within the two-dimensional photonic bandgap. We measure an average Purcell-factor of $\sim 2\times$ for dots randomly distributed within the waveguide and maximum values of $β\sim 90 \%$ close to the slow light band edge. Spatially resolved measurements performed by exciting dots at a well controlled distance $0-45$ μm from the waveguide facet highlight the impact of disorder on the slow-light dispersion. Although disorder broadens the spectral width of the slow light region of the waveguide dispersion from $δE_{d}\leq 0.5$ meV to $>6$ meV, we find that emission is nevertheless primarily directed into propagating waveguide modes. The ability to control the rate and directionality of emission from isolated quantum emitters by placing them in a tailored photonic environment provides much promise for the use of slow-light phenomena to realise efficient single photon sources for quantum optics in a highly integrated setting.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Imaging surface plasmon polaritons using proximal self-assembled InGaAs quantum dots

We present optical investigations of hybrid plasmonic nanosystems consisting of lithographically defined plasmonic Au-waveguides or beamsplitters on GaAs substrates coupled to proximal self-assembled InGaAs quantum dots. We designed a sample structure that enabled us to precisely tune the distance between quantum dots and the sample surface during nano-fabrication and demonstrated that non-radiative processes do not play a major role for separations down to $\sim 10 nm$. A polarized laser beam focused on one end of the plasmonic nanostructure generates propagating surface plasmon polaritons that, in turn, create electron-hole pairs in the GaAs substrate during propagation. These free carriers are subsequently captured by the quantum dots $\sim 25 nm$ below the surface, giving rise to luminescence. The intensity of the spectrally integrated quantum dot luminescence is used to image the propagating plasmon modes. As the waveguide width reduces from $5 μm$ to $1 μm$, we clearly observe different plasmonic modes at the remote waveguide end, enabling their direct imaging in real space. This imaging technique is applied to a plasmonic beamsplitter facilitating the determination of the splitting ratio between the two beamsplitter output ports as the interaction length $L_i$ is varied. A splitting ratio of $50:50$ is observed for $L_i\sim 9\pm1 μm$ and $1 μm$ wide waveguides for excitation energies close to the GaAs band edge. Our experimental findings are in good agreement with mode profile and finite difference time domain simulations for both waveguides and beamsplitters.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Acoustically regulated carrier injection into a single optically active quantum dot

We study the carrier injection into a single InGaAs/GaAs quantum dot regulated by a radio frequency surface acoustic wave. We find that the time of laser excitation during the acoustic cycle programs both the emission intensities and time of formation of neutral $(X^0)$ and negatively charged $(X^-)$ excitons. We identify underlying, characteristic formation pathways of both few-particle states in the time-domain experiments and show that both exciton species can be formed either with the optical pump or at later times by injection of single electrons and holes "surfing" the acoustic wave. All experimental observations are in excellent agreement with calculated electron and hole trajectories in the plane of the two-dimensional wetting layer which is dynamically modulated by the acoustically induced piezoelectric potentials. Taken together, our findings provide insight on both the onset of acousto-electric transport of electrons and holes and their conversion into the optical domain after regulated injection into a single quantum dot emitter.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

On-chip time resolved detection of quantum dot emission using integrated superconducting single photon detectors

We report the routing of quantum light emitted by self-assembled InGaAs quantum dots (QDs) into the optical modes of a GaAs ridge waveguide and its efficient detection on-chip via evanescent coupling to NbN superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs). Individual QD light sources embedded within such integrated nano-photonic circuits are highly attractive for the realization of quantum photonic circuits for many applications in photonic information science. Here, we demonstrate that the waveguide coupled SNSPDs primarily detect QD luminescence with scattered photons from the excitation laser being negligible by comparison. The SNSPD detection efficiency from the evanescently coupled waveguide modes is shown to be two orders of magnitude higher when compared with operation under normal incidence illumination. Furthermore, in-situ time resolved measurements show an average exciton lifetime of 0.93 \pm 0.03 ns when recorded with the integrated detector with an ultrafast timing jitter of only 72 \pm 2 ps showing the great potential of this highly integrated quantum optics system.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Fluctuation induced luminescence sidebands in the emission spectra of resonantly driven quantum dots

We describe how complex fluctuations of the local environment of an optically active quantum dot can leave rich fingerprints in its emission spectrum. A new feature, termed "Fluctuation Induced Luminescence" (FIL), is observed to arise from extremely rare fluctuation events that have a dramatic impact on the response of the system-so called "black swan" events. A quantum dissipative master equation formalism is developed to describe this effect phenomenologically. Experiments performed on single quantum dots subject to electrical noise show excellent agreement with our theory, producing the characteristic FIL sidebands.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗