Electrical control of the exciton fine structure of a quantum dot molecule

Enhancing Third- and Fifth-Order Nonlinearity via Tunneling in Multiple Quantum Dots

The nonlinearity of semiconductor quantum dots under the condition of low light levels has many important applications. In this study, linear absorption, self-Kerr nonlinearity, fifth-order nonlinearity and cross-Kerr nonlinearity of multiple quantum dots, which are coupled by multiple tunneling, are investigated by using the probability amplitude method. It is found that the linear and nonlinear properties of multiple quantum dots can be modified by the tunneling intensity and energy splitting of the system. Most importantly, it is possible to realize enhanced self-Kerr nonlinearity, fifth-order nonlinearity and cross-Kerr nonlinearity with low linear absorption by choosing suitable parameters for the multiple quantum dots. These results have many potential applications in nonlinear optics and quantum information devices using semiconductor quantum dots.

Strain-Tunable Quantum Integrated Photonics

Semiconductor quantum dots are crucial parts of the photonic quantum technology toolbox because they show excellent single-photon emission properties in addition to their potential as solid-state qubits. Recently, there has been an increasing effort to deterministically integrate single semiconductor quantum dots into complex photonic circuits. Despite rapid progress in the field, it remains challenging to manipulate the optical properties of waveguide-integrated quantum emitters in a deterministic, reversible, and nonintrusive manner. Here we demonstrate a new class of hybrid quantum photonic circuits combining III-V semiconductors, silicon nitride, and piezoelectric crystals. Using a combination of bottom-up, top-down, and nanomanipulation techniques, we realize strain tuning of a selected, waveguide-integrated, quantum emitter and a planar integrated optical resonator. Our findings are an important step toward realizing reconfigurable quantum-integrated photonics, with full control over the quantum sources and the photonic circuit.

Creation and Transfer of Coherence via Technique of Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage in Triple Quantum Dots

We propose a scheme for creation and transfer of coherence among ground state and indirect exciton states of triple quantum dots via the technique of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage. Compared with the traditional stimulated Raman adiabatic passage, the Stokes laser pulse is replaced by the tunneling pulse, which can be controlled by the externally applied voltages. By varying the amplitudes and sequences of the pump and tunneling pulses, a complete coherence transfer or an equal coherence distribution among multiple states can be obtained. The investigations can provide further insight for the experimental development of controllable coherence transfer in semiconductor structure and may have potential applications in quantum information processing.

Understanding the electric field control of the electronic and optical properties of strongly-coupled multi-layered quantum dot molecules

Strongly-coupled quantum dot molecules (QDMs) are widely employed in the design of a variety of optoelectronic, photovoltaic, and quantum information devices. An efficient and optimized performance of these devices demands engineering of the electronic and optical properties of the underlying QDMs. The application of electric fields offers a way to realise such a control over the QDM characteristics for a desired device operation. We performed multi-million-atom atomistic tight-binding calculations to study the influence of electric fields on the electron and hole wave function confinements and symmetries, the ground-state transition energies, the band-gap wavelengths, and the optical transition modes. Electrical fields parallel (Ep) and anti-parallel (Ea) to the growth direction were investigated to provide a comprehensive guide for understanding the electric field effects. The strain-induced asymmetry of the hybridized electron states is found to be weak and can be balanced by applying a small Ea electric field, of the order of 1 kV cm(-1). The strong interdot couplings completely break down at large electric fields, leading to single QD states confined at the opposite edges of the QDM. This mimics a transformation from a type-I band structure to a type-II band structure for the QDMs, which is a critical requirement for the design of intermediate-band solar cells (IBSCs). The analysis of the field-dependent ground-state transition energies reveals that the QDM can be operated both as a high dipole moment device by applying large electric fields and as a high polarizability device under the application of small electric field magnitudes. The quantum confined Stark effect (QCSE) red shifts the band-gap wavelength to 1.3 μm at the 15 kV cm(-1) electric field; however the reduced electron-hole wave function overlaps lead to a decrease in the interband optical transition strengths by roughly three orders of magnitude. The study of the polarisation-resolved optical modes indicates the benefits of applying small electric fields, which leads to an isotropic polarisation response, a desirable property for semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs).

Spin-cavity interactions between a quantum dot molecule and a photonic crystal cavity

The integration of InAs/GaAs quantum dots into nanophotonic cavities has led to impressive demonstrations of cavity quantum electrodynamics. However, these demonstrations are primarily based on two-level excitonic systems. Efforts to couple long-lived quantum dot electron spin states with a cavity are only now succeeding. Here we report a two-spin–cavity system, achieved by embedding an InAs quantum dot molecule within a photonic crystal cavity. With this system we obtain a spin singlet–triplet Λ-system where the ground-state spin splitting exceeds the cavity linewidth by an order of magnitude. This allows us to observe cavity-stimulated Raman emission that is highly spin-selective. Moreover, we demonstrate the first cases of cavity-enhanced optical nonlinearities in a solid-state Λ-system. This provides an all-optical, local method to control the spin exchange splitting. Incorporation of a highly engineerable quantum dot molecule into the photonic crystal architecture advances prospects for a quantum network.

Optical cavities enhance light–matter interactions, and have been used to strongly couple a photon to a single spin. Here, the authors take this a step further by coupling a photon to a two-spin system by embedding an indium arsenide quantum-dot molecule in a photonic crystal cavity.