Control of Exciton Fine Structure Splitting in Quantum Dots

• Authors: R. Stevenson , R. Young , P. Atkinson , K. Cooper , D. Ritchie , A. Shields
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Quantum dots have been identified as potential sources of entangled photon pairs, essential for many applications in quantum information. However, in practice structural properties of the dots result in polarisation splitting of the emission lines, which has prevented the realisation of such a source. Here, we present two techniques developed to control the polarisation splitting in a quantum dot both irreversibly and reversibly. We find that the splitting is strongly dependent upon the emission energy, or lateral confinement, of the quantum dot. Thus by precise control of the InAs deposition thickness, it is possible to produce ensembles from which dots with zero polarisation splitting can be easily selected. Additionally, we demonstrate that by using modest in-plane magnetic fields to partially mix the bright and dark exciton states, the polarisation splitting can be reversibly tuned to zero for most dots of a certain type. Finally, we demonstrate the emission of triggered entangled photon pairs from a quantum dot with approximately zero splitting with fidelity >70%.

Keywords

EN

03.67.Mn; 78.67.Hc; 78.55.Cr

Discipline

• 78.55.Cr: III-V semiconductors
• 78.67.Hc: Quantum dots
• 03.67.Mn: Entanglement measures, witnesses, and other characterizations(see also 03.65.Ud Entanglement and quantum nonlocality; 42.50.Dv Quantum state engineering and measurements in quantum optics)

• Journal: Acta Physica Polonica A
• Year: 2006
• Volume: 110
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 311-318

Dates

published

2006-09

received

2006-06-17

Contributors

author

R. Stevenson

• Toshiba Research Europe Limited, 260 Cambridge Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge, CB4 0WE, UK

author

R. Young

• Toshiba Research Europe Limited, 260 Cambridge Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge, CB4 0WE, UK

author

P. Atkinson

• Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0HE, UK

author

K. Cooper

• Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0HE, UK

author

D. Ritchie

• Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0HE, UK

author

A. Shields

• Toshiba Research Europe Limited, 260 Cambridge Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge, CB4 0WE, UK

References

• 1. A.K. Ekert, Phys. Rev. Lett., 67, 661, 1991
• 2. H.J. Briegel, W. Dur, J.I. Cirac, P. Zoller, Phys. Rev. Lett., 81, 5932, 1998
• 3. E. Knill, R. Laflamme, G.J. Milburn, Nature, 409, 46, 2001
• 4. Y.H. Shih, C.O. Alley, Phys. Rev. Lett., 61, 2921, 1988; T.E. Kiess, Y.H. Shih, A.V. Sergienko, C.O. Alley, Phys. Rev. Lett., 71, 3893, 1993
• 5. O. Benson, C. Santori, M. Pelton, Y. Yamamoto, Phys. Rev. Lett., 84, 2513, 2000
• 6. D. Gammon, E.S. Snow, B.V. Shanabrook, D.S. Katzer, D. Park, Phys. Rev. Lett., 76, 3005, 1996; V.D. Kulakovskii, G. Bacher, R. Weigand, T. Kummell, A. Forchel, E. Borovitskaya, K. Leonardi, D. Hommel, Phys. Rev. Lett., 82, 1780, 1999
• 7. R.M. Stevenson, R.M. Thompson, A.J. Shields, I. Farrer, B.E. Kardynal, D.A. Ritchie, M. Pepper, Phys. Rev. B, 66, 081302, 2002; C. Santori, D. Fattal, M. Pelton, G.S. Solomon, Y. Yamamoto, Phys. Rev. B, 66, 045308, 2002; S.M. Ulrich, S. Strauf, P. Michler, G. Bacher, A. Forchel, Appl. Phys. Lett., 83, 1848, 2003
• 8. W. Langbein, P. Borri, U. Woggon, V. Stavarache, D. Reuter, A.D. Wieck, Phys. Rev. B, 69, 161301(R), 2004; A.I. Tartakovskii, M.N. Makhonin, I.R. Sellers, J. Cahill, A.D. Andreev, D.M. Whittaker, J.P.R. Wells, A.M. Fox, D.J. Mowbray, M.S. Skolnick, K.M. Groom, M.J. Steer, H.Y. Liu, M. Hopkinson, Phys. Rev. B, 70, 193303, 2004
• 9. R.J. Young, R.M. Stevenson, A.J. Shields, P. Atkinson, K. Cooper, D.A. Ritchi, K.M. Groom, A.I. Tartakovskii, M.S. Skolnick, Phys. Rev. B, 72, 113305, 2005
• 10. O. Stier, M. Grundmann, D. Bimberg, Phys. Rev. B, 59, 5688, 1999
• 11. R.M. Stevenson, R.J. Young, P. See, D.G. Gevaux, K. Cooper, P. Atkinson, I. Farrer, D.A. Ritchie, A.J. Shields, Phys. Rev. B, 73, 033306, 2006
• 12. H. Benisty, H. DeNeve, C. Weisbuch, IEEE J. Quantum Electron., 34, 1612, 1998
• 13. A.J. Bennett, D.C. Unitt, P. See, A.J. Shields, P. Atkinson, K. Cooper, D.A. Ritchie, Appl. Phys. Lett., 86, 181102, 2005
• 14. R.J. Young, R.M. Stevenson, P. Atkinson, K. Cooper, D.A. Ritchie, A.J. Shields, New J. Phys., 8, 29, 2006
• 15. R.M. Stevenson, R.J. Young, P. Atkinson, K. Cooper, D.A. Ritchie, A.J. Shields, Nature, 439, 179, 2006
• 16. D.F. James, P.G. Kwiat, W.J. Munro, A.G. White, Phys. Rev. A, 64, 052312, 2001
• 17. Z. Yuan, B.E. Kardynal, R.M. Stevenson, A.J. Shields, C.J. Lobo, K. Cooper, N.S. Beattie, D.A. Ritchie, M. Pepper, Science, 295, 102, 2002

Identifiers

DOI

10.12693/APhysPolA.110.311