arXiv subjects

S. Hughes

Publications and source records attributed to S. Hughes.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2012

Finite-difference time-domain technique as an efficient tool for obtaining the regularized Green function: applications to the local field problem in quantum optics for inhomogeneous lossy materials

The calculation of the local density of states (LDOS) in lossy materials has long been disputed due to the divergence of the homogeneous Green function with equal space arguments. For arbitrary shaped lossy structures, such as those of interest in nanoplasmonics, this problem is particular challenging. A non-divergent LDOS obtained in numerical methods like the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD), at first sight, appears to be wrong. Here we show that FDTD is not only an ideal choice for obtaining the regularized LDOS, but it can address the local field problem for any lossy inhomogeneous material. We exemplify the case of a finite-size photon emitter embedded within and outside a lossy metal nanoparticle, and show excellent agreement with analytical results.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2012

Theory of the quantum-dot Mollow triplet in an exciton-driven semiconductor cavity

We present a comprehensive theoretical study of the resonance fluorescence spectra of an exciton-driven quantum dot (QD) placed inside a high-$Q$ semiconductor cavity and interacting with an acoustic phonon bath. We derive a quantum master equation (ME) in the polaron frame which includes exciton-phonon and exciton-cavity coupling to all orders. This work details and extends the theory used in a recent issue of {\em Physical Review Letters} (C. Roy and S. Hughes 2011: Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 106} 247403) to describe the QD Mollow triplet in the regime of semiconductor cavity-QED. Here we introduce two ME forms, Nakajima-Zwanzig (NZ) and time-convolutionless (TC), both to second order in the system--phonon-reservoir perturbation. In the polaron frame, these two ME forms are shown to yield equivalent population dynamics and fluorescence spectra for a continuous wave (cw) driving field. We also demonstrate that a Markov approximation is valid for computing the incoherent scattering processes and we subsequently exploit the Markovian TC ME to explore the resonance fluorescence spectra of an exciton-driven QD. Both cavity-emitted and exciton-emitted spectra are studied and these are found to have qualitatively different spectral features. Using a coherent driving field, the well known characteristics of the atomic Mollow triplet are shown to be considerably modified with electron--acoustic-phonon scattering and we highlight the key effects arising from both cavity coupling and electron-phonon coupling. Regimes of pronounced cavity feeding and anharmonic cavity-QED are exemplified, and we find that the cavity coupling depends sensitively on the exciton-cavity detuning and the temperature of the phonon bath. We show how the full width at half maximum (linewidth) of the Mollow triplet sidebands varies as a function of the square of the Rabi frequency of the cw pump.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Nonlinear photon transport in a semiconductor waveguide-cavity system containing a single quantum dot: Anharmonic cavity-QED regime

We present a semiconductor master equation technique to study the input/output characteristics of coherent photon transport in a semiconductor waveguide-cavity system containing a single quantum dot. We use this approach to investigate the effects of photon propagation and anharmonic cavity-QED for various dot-cavity interaction strengths, including weakly-coupled, intermediately-coupled, and strongly-coupled regimes. We demonstrate that for mean photon numbers much less than 0.1, the commonly adopted weak excitation (single quantum) approximation breaks down, even in the weak coupling regime. As a measure of the anharmonic multiphoton-correlations, we compute the Fano factor and the correlation error associated with making a semiclassical approximation. We also explore the role of electron--acoustic-phonon scattering and find that phonon-mediated scattering plays a qualitatively important role on the light propagation characteristics. As an application of the theory, we simulate a conditional phase gate at a phonon bath temperature of $20 $K in the strong coupling regime.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2011

Spontaneous Emission Spectra and Quantum Light-Matter Interactions from a Strongly-Coupled Quantum Dot Metal-Nanoparticle System

We investigate the quantum optical properties of a single photon emitter coupled to a finite-size metal nanoparticle using a photon Green function technique that rigorously quantizes the electromagnetic fields. We first obtain pronounced Purcell factors and photonic Lamb shifts for both a 7-nm and 20-nm radius metal nanoparticle, without adopting a dipole approximation. We then consider a quantum-dot photon emitter positioned sufficiently near to the metal nanoparticle so that the strong coupling regime is possible. Accounting for non-dipole interactions, quenching, and photon transport from the dot to the detector, we demonstrate that the strong coupling regime should be observable in the far-field spontaneous emission spectrum, even at room temperature. The emission spectra show that the usual vacuum Rabi doublet becomes a rich spectral triplet or quartet with two of the four peaks anticrossing, which survives in spite of significant non-radiative decays. We discuss the emitted light spectrum and the effects of quenching for two different dipole polarizations.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Phonon-dressed Mollow triplet in the regime of cavity-QED

We study the resonance fluorescence spectra of a driven quantum dot placed inside a high $Q$ semiconductor cavity and interacting with an acoustic phonon bath. The dynamics is calculated using a time-convolutionless master equation obtained in the polaron frame. We demonstrate pronounced spectral broadening of the Mollow sidebands through cavity-emission which, for small cavity-coupling rates, increases quadratically with the Rabi frequency. However, for larger cavity coupling rates, this broadening dependence is found to be more complex. This field-dependent Mollow triplet broadening is primarily a consequence of the triplet peaks sampling different parts of the asymmetric phonon bath, and agrees directly with recent experiments with semiconductor micropillars. The influence from the detuned cavity photon bath and multi-photon effects is shown to play a qualitatively important role on the fluorescence spectra.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Stationary inversion of a two level system coupled to an off-resonant cavity with strong dissipation

We present an off-resonant excitation scheme that realizes pronounced stationary inversion in a two level system. The created inversion exploits a cavity-assisted two photon resonance to enhance the multi-photon regime of nonlinear cavity QED and survives even in a semiconductor environment, where the cavity decay rate is comparable to the cavity-dot coupling rate. Exciton populations of greater than 0.75 are obtained in the presence of realistic decay and pure dephasing. Quantum trajectory simulations and quantum master equation calculations help elucidate the underlying physics and delineate the limitations of a simplified rate equation model. Experimental signatures of inversion and multi-photon cavity QED are predicted in the fluorescence intensity and second-order correlation function measured as a function of drive power.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Optical Forces Between Coupled Plasmonic Nano-particles near Metal Surfaces and Negative Index Material Waveguides

We present a study of light-induced forces between two coupled plasmonic nano-particles above various slab geometries including a metallic half-space and a 280-nm thick negative index material (NIM) slab waveguide. We investigate optical forces by non-perturbatively calculating the scattered electric field via a Green function technique which includes the particle interactions to all orders. For excitation frequencies near the surface plasmon polariton and slow-light waveguide modes of the metal and NIM, respectively, we find rich light-induced forces and significant dynamical back-action effects. Optical quenching is found to be important in both metal and NIM planar geometries, which reduces the spatial range of the achievable inter-particle forces. However, reducing the loss in the NIM allows radiation to propagate through the slow-light modes more efficiently, thus causing the light-induced forces to be more pronounced between the two particles. To highlight the underlying mechanisms by which the particles couple, we connect our Green function calculations to various familiar quantities in quantum optics.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Influence of electron-acoustic phonon scattering on off-resonant cavity feeding within a strongly coupled quantum-dot cavity system

We present a medium-dependent quantum optics approach to describe the influence of electron-acoustic phonon coupling on the emission spectra of a strongly coupled quantum-dot cavity system. Using a canonical Hamiltonian for light quantization and a photon Green function formalism, phonons are included to all orders through the dot polarizability function obtained within the independent Boson model. We derive simple user-friendly analytical expressions for the linear quantum light spectrum, including the influence from both exciton and cavity-emission decay channels. In the regime of semiconductor cavity-QED, we study cavity emission for various exciton-cavity detunings and demonstrate rich spectral asymmetries as well as cavity-mode suppression and enhancement effects. Our technique is nonperturbative, and non-Markovian, and can be applied to study photon emission from a wide range of semiconductor quantum dot structures, including waveguides and coupled cavity arrays. We compare our theory directly to recent and apparently puzzling experimental data for a single site-controlled quantum dot in a photonic crystal cavity and show good agreement as a function of cavity-dot detuning and as a function of temperature.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Generation of time-bin entangled photon pairs using a quantum-dot cavity system

We present a scheme to realize a deterministic solid state source of time-bin entangled photon pairs using cavity-assisted stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) in a single quantum dot. The quantum dot is embedded inside a semiconductor cavity, and the interaction of a coherent superposition of two temporally separated input pulses and the cavity mode leads to a two-photon Raman transition, which produces a time-bin entangled photon pair through the biexciton-exciton cascade. We show that the entanglement of the generated state can be measured using triple coincidence detection, and the degree of entanglement is quantified as the visibility of the interference. We also discuss the effect of pure dephasing on entanglement of the generated photon pair. Pronounced interference visibility values of greater than $1/\sqrt{2}$ are demonstrated in triple coincidence measurement using experimentally achievable parameters, thus demonstrating that the generated photons are suitable for applications with Bell's inequality violation and quantum cryptography.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2010

Interplay between disorder and local field effects in photonic crystal waveguides

We introduce a theory to describe disorder-induced scattering in photonic crystal waveguides, specifically addressing the influence of local field effects and scattering within high-index-contrast perturbations. Local field effects are shown to increase the predicted disorder-induced scattering loss and result in significant resonance shifts of the waveguide mode. We demonstrate that two types of frequency shifts can be expected, a mean frequency shift and a RMS frequency shift, both acting in concert to blueshift and broaden the nominal band structure. For a representative waveguide, we predict substantial meV frequency shifts and band structure broadening for a telecommunications operating frequency, even for state of the art fabrication. The disorder-induced broadening is found to increase as the propagation frequency approaches the slow light regime (mode edge) due to restructuring of the electric field distribution. These findings have a dramatic impact on high-index-contrast nanoscale waveguides, and, for photonic crystal waveguides, suggest that the nominal slow-light mode edge may not even exist. Furthermore, our results shed new light on why it has hitherto been impossible to observe the very slow light regime for photonic crystal waveguides.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Theory of disorder-induced multiple coherent scattering in photonic crystal waveguides

We introduce a theoretical formalism to describe disorder-induced extrinsic scattering in slow-light photonic crystal waveguides. This work details and extends the optical scattering theory used in a recent \emph{Physical Review Letter} [M. Patterson \emph{et al.}, \emph{Phys. Rev. Lett.} \textbf{102}, 103901 (2009)] to describe coherent scattering phenomena and successfully explain complex experimental measurements. Our presented theory, that combines Green function and coupled mode methods, allows one to self-consistently account for arbitrary multiple scattering for the propagating electric field and recover experimental features such as resonances near the band edge. The technique is fully three-dimensional and can calculate the effects of disorder on the propagating field over thousands of unit cells. As an application of this theory, we explore various sample lengths and disordered instances, and demonstrate the profound effect of multiple scattering in the waveguide transmission. The spectra yield rich features associated with disorder-induced localization and multiple scattering, which are shown to be exasperated in the slow light propagation regime.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Generation of "triggered single photons" from a coherently-pumped quantum dot

A deterministic "on demand" source of single photons is a basic building block for linear quantum computation \cite{linear}, quantum cryptography \cite{crypto}, quantum teleportation \cite{teleport}, and quantum networks \cite{network}. In all these applications, quantum interference between two single-photon pulses on a symmetric beam splitter has been exploited \cite{review}, which imposes stringent requirement for the implemented single photons to be indistinguishable in all degrees of freedom, including their frequencies, spectral widths, pulse shapes, and polarizations. To generate single photons one requires a pumping mechanism to excite a "two-level emitter" and an efficient channeling of the subsequently emitted photons. The efficiency of the source can be enhanced by coupling the emitter to the waveguide \cite{manga} or a microcavity mode \cite{cklaw}. However, hitherto the solid-state single photon sources realized by using a quantum dot coupled with a microcavity rely on incoherent pumping of excitons, which leads to problems with timing jitter \cite{kiraz}, leading to a trade off between efficiency and indistinguishability. Here we introduce a means to realize a highly efficient solid state source of indistinguishable single photons using cavity-assisted adiabatic Raman passage in a single quantum dot - cavity system. We demonstrate pulse-triggered single photons with 100% efficiency and $>90$% indistinguishability using currently available experimental parameters.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2009

Nonlinear photoluminescence spectra from a quantum dot-cavity system: Direct evidence of pump-induced stimulated emission and anharmonic cavity-QED

We investigate the power-dependent photoluminescence spectra from a strongly coupled quantum dot-cavity system using a quantum master equation technique that accounts for incoherent pumping, pure dephasing, and fermion or boson statistics. Analytical spectra at the one-photon correlation level and the numerically exact multi-photon spectra for fermions are presented. We compare to recent experiments on a quantum dot-micropiller cavity system and show that an excellent fit to the data can be obtained by varying only the incoherent pump rates in direct correspondence with the experiments. Our theory and experiments together show a clear and systematic way of studying stimulated-emission induced broadening and anharmonic cavity-QED.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Controlled cavity-QED using a photonic crystal waveguide-cavity system

We introduce a photonic crystal waveguide-cavity system for controlling single photon cavity-QED processes. Exploiting Bloch mode analysis, and medium-dependent Green function techniques, we demonstrate that the propagation of single photons can be accurately described analytically, for integrated periodic waveguides with little more than four unit cells, including an output coupler. We verify our analytical approach by comparing to rigorous numerical calculations for a range of photonic crystal waveguide lengths. This allows one to nano-engineer various regimes of cavity-QED with unprecedented control. We demonstrate Purcell factors of greater than 1000 and on-chip single photon beta factors of about 80% efficiency. Both weak and strong coupling regimes are investigated, and the important role of waveguide length on the output emission spectra is shown, for vertically emitted emission and output waveguide emission.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2009

Ultrahigh Purcell factors and Lamb shifts using slow-light metamaterial waveguides

Employing a medium-dependent quantum optics formalism and a Green function solution of Maxwell's equations, we study the enhanced spontaneous emission factors (Purcell factors) and Lamb shifts from a quantum dot or atom near the surface of a %embedded in a slow-light metamaterial waveguide. Purcell factors of approximately 250 and 100 are found at optical frequencies for $p-$polarized and $s-$polarized dipoles respectively placed 28\thinspace nm (0.02\thinspace $λ_{0}$) above the slab surface, including a realistic metamaterial loss factor of $γ/2π=2 \mathrm{THz}$. For smaller loss values, we demonstrate that the slow-light regime of odd metamaterial waveguide propagation modes can be observed and related to distinct resonances in the Purcell factors. Correspondingly, we predict unusually large and rich Lamb shifts of approximately -1 GHz to -6 GHz for a dipole moment of 50 Debye. We also make a direct calculation of the far field emission spectrum, which contains direct measurable access to these enhanced Purcell factors and Lamb shifts.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Antibunching correlations in a strongly coupled exciton - photonic crystal cavity system: Role of off-resonant coupling to multiple excitons

We employ a master equation approach to study the second-order quantum autocorrelation functions for up to two independent quantum dot excitons, coupled to an off-resonant cavity in a photonic crystal - single quantum dot system. For a single coupled off-resonant exciton, we observe novel oscillatory behaviour in the early-time dynamics of the cavity autocorrelation function, which leads to decreased antibunching relative to the exciton mode. With a second coupled exciton in the system, we find that the magnitude and the lifetime of these oscillations greatly increases, since the cavity is then able to exchange photons with multiple excitonic resonances. We unambiguously show that this spoils the antibunching characteristics of the cavity quasi-mode, while the autocorrelation of the first exciton is unaffected. We also examine the effects of detector time resolution and make a direct connection to a series of recent experiments.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Fast generation of entangled photon pairs from a single quantum dot embedded in a photonic crystal cavity

We present a scheme for the fast generation of entangled photons from a single quantum dot coupled to a planar photonic crystal that support two orthogonally polarized cavity modes. We discuss ``within generation'' and ``across generation'' of entangled photons when both biexciton to exciton, and exciton to ground state transitions, are coupled through cavity modes. In the across generation, the photon entanglement is restored through a time delay between the photons. The two photon concurrence, which is a measure of entanglement, is greater than 0.7 and 0.8 using experimentally achievable parameters in across generation and within generation, respectively. We also show that the entanglement can be distilled in both cases using a simple spectral filter.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Disorder-induced coherent scattering in slow-light photonic crystal waveguides

We present light transmission measurements and frequency-delay reflectometry maps for GaAs photonic crystal membranes, which show the transition from propagation with a well defined group velocity to a regime completely dominated by disorder-induced coherent scattering. Employing a self-consistent optical scattering theory, with only statistical functions to describe the structural disorder, we obtain an excellent agreement with the experiments using no fitting parameters. Our experiments and theory together provide clear physical insight into naturally occurring light localization and multiple coherent-scattering phenomena in slow-light waveguides.

physics.optics↗