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Trapped ions are promising candidates for nodes of a scalable quantum network due to their long-lived qubit coherence times and high-fidelity single and two-qubit gates. Future quantum networks based on trapped ions will require a scalable way to route photons between different nodes. Photonic integrated circuits from fabrication foundries provide a compact solution to this problem. However, these circuits typically operate at telecommunication wavelengths which are incompatible with the strong dipole emissions of trapped ions. In this work, we demonstrate the routing of single photons from a trapped ion using a photonic integrated circuit. We employ quantum frequency conversion to match the emission of the ion to the operating wavelength of a foundry-fabricated silicon nitride photonic integrated circuit, achieving a total transmission of 31$\pm$0.9% through the device. Using programmable phase shifters, we switch the single photons between the output channels of the circuit and also demonstrate a 50/50 beam splitting condition. These results constitute an important step towards programmable routing and entanglement distribution in large-scale quantum networks and distributed quantum computers.

Atomic frequency combs memories that coherently store optical signals are a key building block for optical quantum computers1 and quantum networks2. Current atomic frequency combs typically use bulk materials or waveguides with large cross-sections3–5, or rely on fabrication techniques not easily adaptable to wafer scale processing6. Integrating such memories into compact and chip-scale devices is essential for scalable quantum technology. We demonstrate a compact chip-integrated atomic frequency comb in rare earth doped thin-film lithium niobate. Our optical memory exhibits a broad storage bandwidth exceeding 100 MHz, and optical storage time of over 250 ns. The enhanced optical confinement in this device leads to three orders of magnitude reduction in optical power required for coherent control as compared to ion-diffused waveguides 7. These compact atomic frequency comb memories pave the way towards scalable, highly efficient, electro-optically tunable quantum photonic systems that can store and manipulate light on a compact chip3.

Radiative cascades emit correlated photon pairs, providing a pathway for the generation of entangled photons. The realization of a radiative cascade with impurity atoms in semiconductors, a leading platform for the generation of quantum light, would therefore provide a new avenue for the development of entangled photon pair sources. Here we demonstrate a radiative cascade from the decay of a biexciton at an impurity-atom complex in a ZnSe quantum well. The emitted photons show clear temporal correlations revealing the time--ordering of the cascade. Our result establishes impurity atoms in ZnSe as a potential platform for photonic quantum technologies using radiative cascades., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

We propose a quantum Fourier transform on photons in which a single atom-coupled cavity system mediates the photon-photon interactions. Our protocol utilizes time-delay feedback of photons and requires no active feedforward control. The time-delay feedback enables a single atom-cavity system to implement a quantum Fourier transform on an arbitrary number of photonic qubits on-the-fly, while rapid tuning of the atomic transition implements arbitrary controlled-phase gates. We analyze the performance of the protocol numerically and show that it can implement quantum Fourier transforms with tens of photons using state-of-the-art cavity quantum electrodynamics., 8 pages, 5 figures

Ultrathin optical limiters are needed to protect light sensitive components in miniaturized optical systems. However, it has proven challenging to achieve a sufficiently low optical limiting threshold. In this work, we theoretically show that an ultrathin optical limiter with low threshold intensity can be realized using a nonlinear zone plate. The zone plate is embedded with nonlinear saturable absorbing materials that allow the device to focus low intensity light, while high intensity light is transmitted as a plane wave without a focal spot. Based on this proposed mechanism, we use the finite-difference time-domain method to computationally design a zone plate embedded with InAs quantum dots as the saturable absorbing material. The device has a thickness of just 0.5 μm and exhibits good optical limiting behavior with a threshold intensity as low as 0.45 kW/cm2, which is several orders of magnitude lower than bulk limiter counterparts based on a similar mechanism, and also performs favorably compared to current ultrathin flat-optics-based optical limiters. This design can be optimized for different operating wavelengths and threshold intensities by using different saturable absorbing materials. Additionally, the diameter and focal length of the nonlinear zone plate can be easily adjusted to fit different systems and applications. Due to its flexible design, low power threshold, and ultrathin thickness, this optical limiting concept may be promising for application in miniaturized optical systems.

Integrated photonics is a powerful platform for future quantum technology that encodes and processes information using single photons. In this talk I will describe an experimental realization of a quantum transistor, which mediates strong interactions between single photons using a single semiconductor spin qubits. These interactions are a key requirement for active quantum photonic devices. I will also present our recent work on hybrid integration of these devices with photonics, as well as applications in photonic quantum computing and topological photonics.

Bright fiber-coupled single photon sources are essential components for practical quantum network. In this work, we present a bright single photon source based on an InAs/InP quantum dot emitting at telecom wavelengths. We designed a nanobeam with a photonic crystal mirror at the other end and a tapered coupler at the other end enabling both directional emission and gaussian-like far-field profile. We detected fiber-coupled single photon count rate of 1.1 MHz with 40 MHz pumping rate. Considering losses from optics and spectral filters, we achieved collection efficiency into first lens of 68% and a total fiber collection efficiency of 8.2%.

We demonstrate single photon emission from donor bound excitons in Cl doped ZnSe quantum wells. The emitters are investigated in cryogenic temperatures, and they showed high binding energies and short lifetimes.

Future scalable photonic quantum information processing relies on the ability of integrating multiple interacting quantum emitters into a single chip. Quantum dots provide ideal on-chip quantum light sources. However, achieving quantum interaction between multiple quantum dots on-a-chip is a challenging task due to the randomness in their frequency and position, requiring local tuning technique and long-range quantum interaction. Here, we demonstrate quantum interactions between distant two quantum dots on a nanophotonic waveguide. We achieve a photon-mediated long-range interaction by integrating the quantum dots to the same optical mode of a nanophotonic waveguide and overcome spectral mismatch by incorporating on-chip thermal tuners. We observe their quantum interactions of the form of super-radiant emission, where the two dots collectively emit faster than each dot individually. Creating super-radiant emission from integrated quantum emitters could enable compact chip-integrated photonic structures that exhibit long-range quantum interactions. Therefore, these results represent a major step towards establishing photonic quantum information processors composed of multiple interacting quantum emitters on a semiconductor chip., Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures

Fiber-based quantum networks require photons at telecommunications wavelengths to interconnect qubits separated by long distances. Trapped ions are leading candidates for quantum networking with high-fidelity two-qubit gates, long coherence times, and the ability to readily emit photons entangled with the ion's internal qubit states. However, trapped ions typically emit photons at wavelengths incompatible with telecommunications fiber. Here, we demonstrate frequency conversion of visible photons, emitted from the S-P dipole transition of a trapped Ba+ ion, into the telecommunications C-band. These results are an important step towards enabling a long-distance trapped ion quantum internet.

The majority of photonic quantum information technologies rely on single photons that have high purity and indistinguishability. Although solid-state quantum emitters can serve such single photons on demand, their asymmetric temporal and spatial mode profiles limit the optimal efficiency and fidelity of quantum interaction. Here, we demonstrate single-photon pulses at a telecom wavelength with a Gaussian-like temporal mode profile from a cavity-coupled single quantum dot. Engineering the exciton dynamics via multi-exciton cascade recombination and cavity detuning enables us to modify the rise and decay dynamics of single excitons. Furthermore, the cascade recombination process temporally retards the single-exciton emission from the background emission, leading to possible purification of single photons at high excitation power. In addition, coupling quantum dots into a low Q cavity mode leads to a Gaussian-like spatial mode profile, which brings a high collection efficiency. This approach paves the way for producing single photons with an optimized temporal and spatial waveform.

Devices known as quantum cascade lasers produce useful terahertz radiation, but are typically highly sensitive to fabrication defects. This limitation has now been overcome using a property called topological robustness. Terahertz radiation from a topological laser.

Charged quantum dots containing an electron or hole spin are bright solid-state qubits suitable for quantum networks and distributed quantum computing. Incorporating such quantum dot spin into a photonic crystal cavity creates a strong spin-photon interface, in which the spin can control a photon by modulating the cavity reflection coefficient. However, previous demonstrations of such spin-photon interfaces have relied on quantum dots that are charged randomly by nearby impurities, leading to instability in the charge state, which causes poor contrast in the cavity reflectivity. Here we demonstrate a strong spin-photon interface using a quantum dot that is charged deterministically with a diode structure. By incorporating this actively charged quantum dot in a photonic crystal cavity, we achieve strong coupling between the cavity mode and the negatively charged state of the dot. Furthermore, by initializing the spin through optical pumping, we show strong spin-dependent modulation of the cavity reflectivity, corresponding to a cooperativity of 12. This spin-dependent reflectivity is important for mediating entanglement between spins using photons, as well as generating strong photon-photon interactions for applications in quantum networking and distributed quantum computing.

Integration of single-photon sources and detectors to silicon-based photonics opens the possibility of complex circuits for quantum information processing. In this work, we demonstrate integration of quantum dots with a silicon photonic add-drop filter for on-chip filtering and routing of telecom single photons. A silicon microdisk resonator acts as a narrow filter that transfers the quantum dot emission and filters the background over a wide wavelength range. Moreover, by tuning the quantum dot emission wavelength over the resonance of the microdisk we can control the transmission of the emitted single photons to the drop and through channels of the add-drop filter. This result is a step toward the on-chip control of single photons using silicon photonics for applications in quantum information processing, such as linear optical quantum computation and boson sampling.

Rare-earth ion ensembles doped in single crystals are a promising materials system with widespread applications in optical signal processing, lasing, and quantum information processing. Incorporating rare-earth ions into integrated photonic devices could enable compact lasers and modulators, as well as on-chip optical quantum memories for classical and quantum optical applications. To this end, a thin film single crystalline wafer structure that is compatible with planar fabrication of integrated photonic devices would be highly desirable. However, incorporating rare-earth ions into a thin film form-factor while preserving their optical properties has proven challenging. We demonstrate an integrated photonic platform for rare-earth ions doped in a single crystalline thin film on insulator. The thin film is composed of lithium niobate doped with Tm3+. The ions in the thin film exhibit optical lifetimes identical to those measured in bulk crystals. We show narrow spectral holes in a thin film waveguide that require up to 2 orders of magnitude lower power to generate than previously reported bulk waveguides. Our results pave way for scalable on-chip lasers, optical signal processing devices, and integrated optical quantum memories.

In this paper, we have developed a method for describing the dynamics of an arbitrary quantum system under a bidirectional time-delayed feedback loop. For this purpose, we have described the evolution in terms of the time propagation of the quantum system of interest without feedback together with several identical systems, which represent the history of the quantum system under study. This technique provides a numerically efficient solution for describing a system's dynamics in the case of significant time delays in which direct investigation of the state of the reservoirs becomes numerically intractable. Using this method, we have studied two scenarios of multiple scatterings of photons incident on a cavity with a two-level atom positioned inside it, coupled to two waveguides that are connected at their ends. In the first scenario, two photons impinge on the cavity through separate waveguides with a delay between them. We have demonstrated that the maximum difference between the two output photon numbers occurs when the delay between the incident photons becomes close to the inverse of their linewidth. In the second scenario, multiple photons impinge on the cavity through the same waveguide and go through multiple interactions. We have shown that, for a fixed atom-cavity coupling rate, the transmission rate enhances as the number of photons increases and have quantified this enhancement. The developed method enables us to study a broad range of nonlinear dynamics in complex quantum networks.

InAs/InP quantum dots are excellent sources of telecom single-photon emission and are among the most promising candidates for scalable quantum photonic circuits. However, geometric differences in each quantum dot lead to slightly different emission wavelengths and hinder the possibility of generating multiple identical quantum emitters on the same chip. Stark tuning is an efficient technique to overcome this issue as it can control the emission energy of individual quantum dots through the quantum-confined Stark effect. Realizing this technique in InAs/InP quantum dots has previously been limited to shifts of less than 0.8 meV due to jumps in the emission energy because of additional charges at high electric field intensities. We demonstrate up to 5.1 meV of Stark tuning in the emission wavelength of InAs/InP quantum dots. To eliminate undesirable jumps to the charged state, we use a thin oxide insulator to prevent carrier injection from the contacts, thereby significantly improving the tuning range of the Stark effect. Moreover, the single-photon nature and narrow linewidth of the quantum dot emission are preserved under a wide range of applied electric fields. Using photoluminescence intensity measurements and time-resolved lifetime spectroscopy, we confirmed that this Stark tuning range is limited by carrier tunneling at high electric fields. This result is an important step toward integrating multiple identical quantum emitters at telecom wavelengths on a chip, which is crucial for realizing complex quantum photonic circuits for quantum information processing.

Interactions between solid-state quantum emitters and cavities are important for a broad range of applications in quantum communication, linear optical quantum computing, nonlinear photonics, and photonic quantum simulation. These applications often require combining many devices on a single chip with identical emission wavelengths in order to generate two-photon interference, the primary mechanism for achieving effective photon-photon interactions. Such integration remains extremely challenging due to inhomogeneous broadening and fabrication errors that randomize the resonant frequencies of both the emitters and cavities. In this Letter, we demonstrate two-photon interference from independent cavity-coupled emitters on the same chip, providing a potential solution to this long-standing problem. We overcome spectral mismatch between different cavities due to fabrication errors by depositing and locally evaporating a thin layer of condensed nitrogen. We integrate optical heaters to tune individual dots within each cavity to the same resonance with better than 3 μeV of precision. Combining these tuning methods, we demonstrate two-photon interference between two devices spaced by less than 15 μm on the same chip with a postselected visibility of 33%, which is limited by timing resolution of the detectors and background. These results pave the way to integrate multiple quantum light sources on the same chip to develop quantum photonic devices.

The integration of quantum emitters with integrated photonics enables complex quantum photonic circuits that are necessary for photonic implementation of quantum simulators, computers, and networks. Thin-film lithium niobate is an ideal material substrate for quantum photonics because it can tightly confine light in small waveguides and has a strong electro-optic effect that can switch and modulate single photons at low power and high speed. However, lithium niobate lacks efficient single-photon emitters, which are essential for scalable quantum photonic circuits. We demonstrate deterministic coupling of single-photon emitters with a lithium niobate photonic chip. The emitters are composed of InAs quantum dots embedded in an InP nanobeam, which we transfer to a lithium niobate waveguide with nanoscale accuracy using a pick-and-place approach. An adiabatic taper transfers single photons emitted into the nanobeam to the lithium niobate waveguide with high efficiency. We verify the single photon nature of the emission using photon correlation measurements performed with an on-chip beamsplitter. Our results demonstrate an important step toward fast, reconfigurable quantum photonic circuits for quantum information processing.

Coupling single photon emitters to surface plasmons provides a versatile ground for on chip quantum photonics. However, achieving good coupling efficiency requires precise alignment of both the position and dipole orientation of the emitter relative to the plasmonic mode. We demonstrate coupling of single emitters in the 2-D semiconductor, WSe2 self-aligned with propagating surface plasmon polaritons in silver-air-silver, metal-insulator-metal waveguides. The waveguide produces strain induced defects in the monolayer which are close to the surface plasmon mode with favorable dipole orientations for optimal coupling. We measure an average enhancement in the rate of spontaneous emission by a factor of 1.89 for coupling the single defects to the plasmonic waveguide. This architecture provides an efficient way of coupling single photon emitters to propagating plasmons which is an important step towards realizing active plasmonic circuits on chip., 8 pages, 4 figures

Coupling of an atom-like emitter to surface plasmons provides a path toward significant optical nonlinearity, which is essential in quantum information processing and quantum networks. A large coupling strength requires nanometer-scale positioning accuracy of the emitter near the surface of the plasmonic structure, which is challenging. We demonstrate the coupling of single localized defects in a tungsten diselenide (WSe2) monolayer self-aligned to the surface plasmon mode of a silver nanowire. The silver nanowire induces a strain gradient on the monolayer at the overlapping area, leading to the formation of localized defect emission sites that are intrinsically close to the surface plasmon. We measured an average coupling efficiency with a lower bound of 26%±11% from the emitter into the plasmonic mode of the silver nanowire. This technique offers a way to achieve efficient coupling between plasmonic structures and localized defects of 2D semiconductors.

We demonstrate on chip filtering of single photons using a hybrid integrated device that contains III/V quantum dots and a silicon-on-insulator photonic disk resonator.

A single-photon gate A long-standing goal in optics is to produce a solid-state alloptical transistor, in which the transmission of light can be controlled by a single photon that acts as a gate or switch. Sun et al. used a solid-state system comprising a quantum dot embedded in a photonic crystal cavity to show that transmission through the cavity can be controlled with a single photon. The single photon is used to manipulate the occupation of electronic energy levels within the quantum dot, which in turn changes its optical properties. With the gate open, about 28 photons can get through the cavity on average, thus demonstrating single-photon switching and the gain for an optical transistor. Science , this issue p. 57

Fiber-integrated single photon device based on quantum dot nanobeam and fiber taper is proposed and calculated. Total collection efficiency of 88% is achieved into one arm of fiber taper. Broadband and robust operation of the system is also confirmed.

We demonstrated an on-chip broadband input-polarization-dependent directional coupler with a directionality of 0.3 based on coupling between a glide-plane photonic crystal waveguide and WSe2 monolayers.

Coupling of an atom-like emitter to surface plasmons provides a path toward significant optical nonlinearity, which is essential in quantum information processing and quantum networks. A large coupling strength requires nanometer-scale positioning accuracy of the emitter near the surface of the plasmonic structure, which is challenging. We demonstrate the coupling of single localized defects in a tungsten diselenide (WSe2) monolayer self-aligned to the surface plasmon mode of a silver nanowire. The silver nanowire induces a strain gradient on the monolayer at the overlapping area, leading to the formation of localized defect emission sites that are intrinsically close to the surface plasmon. We measured an average coupling efficiency with a lower bound of 26% ± 11% from the emitter into the plasmonic mode of the silver nanowire. This technique offers a way to achieve efficient coupling between plasmonic structures and localized defects of two-dimensional semiconductors.

Integrated quantum photonic technologies hold a great promise for application in quantum information processing. A major challenge is to integrate multiple single photon sources on a chip. Quantum dots are bright sources of high purity single photons, and photonic crystals can provide efficient photonic platforms for generating and manipulating single photons from integrated quantum dots. However, integrating multiple quantum dots with photonic crystal devices still remains as a challenging task due to the spectral randomness of the emitters. Here, we present the integration of multiple quantum dots with individual photonic crystal cavities and report quantum interference from chip-integrated multiple quantum dots. To solve the problem of spectral randomness, we introduce local engineering techniques for tuning multiple quantum dots and cavities. From integrated quantum dot devices we observe indistinguishable nature of single photons from individual quantum dots on the same chip. Therefore, our approach paves the way for large-scale quantum photonics with integrated quantum emitters.

Topological photonics [1] is a burgeoning field of photonics due to its potential in realizing robust propagation of light for chip-scale optical communications [2] as well as novel phenomena such as fractional quantum Hall states by engineering the photonic edge states to interact with quantum emitters [3]. Towards these goals and building upon previous work [4], we have designed an all-dielectric nanoscale photonic crystal which supports topological edge states and experimentally observed the transmission of edge states near 1500 nm.

Multiple indistinguishable single photons are key elements of quantum information and communication. We demonstrate multiple identical quantum emitters on-a-chip that show two-photon interference. The advantages of photonic crystal platform for scalable solid-state quantum photonic devices are highlighted.

We show that the presence of a single photon deterministically controls the transmission of another photon. Their strong interactions are mediated by a single quantum dot spin that is strongly coupled to a nanophotonic cavity.

Scalable quantum photonic systems require efficient single photon sources coupled to integrated photonic devices. Solid-state quantum emitters can generate single photons with high efficiency, while silicon photonic circuits can manipulate them in an integrated device structure. Combining these two material platforms could, therefore, significantly increase the complexity of integrated quantum photonic devices. Here, we demonstrate hybrid integration of solid-state quantum emitters to a silicon photonic device. We develop a pick-and-place technique that can position epitaxially grown InAs/InP quantum dots emitting at telecom wavelengths on a silicon photonic chip deterministically with nanoscale precision. We employ an adiabatic tapering approach to transfer the emission from the quantum dots to the waveguide with high efficiency. We also incorporate an on-chip silicon-photonic beamsplitter to perform a Hanbury-Brown and Twiss measurement. Our approach could enable integration of pre-characterized III-V quantum photonic devices into large-scale photonic structures to enable complex devices composed of many emitters and photons., Comment: 19 Pages in total, including 8 figures

We report on the experimental observation of edge states of light with wavelength near 1500 nm in a nanoscale all-dielectric topological photonic crystal waveguide system. Transmission spectra agree with three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain simulations.

Quantum interference between indistinguishable photons are important for a broad range of applications in quantum communication and linear optical quantum computing. We demonstrate two-photon interference from chip-integrated quantum emitters, enabling scalable solid-state quantum photonic devices.

The spin of a single electron or hole trapped inside a quantum dot offers a promising quantum memory. These qubits are embedded in a host semiconductor material that can be directly patterned to form compact integrated nanophotonic devices. These devices efficiently interconnect single solid-state qubits with photons, a crucial requirement for quantum networks, quantum repeaters, and photonic quantum computation. This chapter reviews recent experimental progress towards achieving strong spin-photon interactions based on coupled quantum dot and nanophotonic cavity system. Especially we introduce a recent work that reports a coherent spin-photon quantum switch operating at the fundamental quantum limit, where a single photon flips the orientation of a quantum dot spin and the spin flips the polarization of the photon. These strong spin-photon interactions open up a promising direction for solid-state implementations of high-speed quantum networks and on-chip quantum photonic circuits using nanophotonic devices.

Fiber-coupled single photon sources are considered important components of photonics-based quantum information processors. Most fiber-coupled single photon sources require careful alignment between fibers and quantum emitters. In this work, we present an alignment-free fiber-integrated single photon source based on an InAs/InP quantum dot emitting at telecom wavelengths. We designed a nanobeam containing the quantum dots attached to a fiber taper. The adiabatic tapered coupler of the nanobeam enables efficient light coupling to the fiber taper. Using a tungsten probe in a focused ion beam system, we transferred the nanobeam to the fiber taper. The observed fiber-coupled single photon emission occurs with a brightness of 1.4% and a purity of 83%. This device provides a building block for fiber-optic quantum circuits that have various applications, such as quantum communication and distributed quantum computing.

Long-distance quantum communication relies on the ability to efficiently generate and prepare single photons at telecom wavelengths. Low-density InAs quantum dots on InP surfaces are grown in a molecular beam epitaxy system using a modified Stranski–Krastanov growth paradigm. This material is a source of bright and indistinguishable single photons in the 1.3 μm telecom band. Here, the exploration of the growth parameters is presented as a phase diagram, while low-temperature photoluminescence and atomic resolution images are presented to correlate structure and spectral performance. This work identifies specific stacking faults and V-shaped defects that are likely causes of the observed low brightness emission at 1.55 μm telecom wavelengths. The different locations of the imaged defects suggest possible guidance for future development of InAs/InP single photon sources for c-band, 1.55 μm wavelength telecommunication systems.Long-distance quantum communication relies on the ability to efficiently generate and prepare single photons at telecom wavelengths. Low-density InAs quantum dots on InP surfaces are grown in a molecular beam epitaxy system using a modified Stranski–Krastanov growth paradigm. This material is a source of bright and indistinguishable single photons in the 1.3 μm telecom band. Here, the exploration of the growth parameters is presented as a phase diagram, while low-temperature photoluminescence and atomic resolution images are presented to correlate structure and spectral performance. This work identifies specific stacking faults and V-shaped defects that are likely causes of the observed low brightness emission at 1.55 μm telecom wavelengths. The different locations of the imaged defects suggest possible guidance for future development of InAs/InP single photon sources for c-band, 1.55 μm wavelength telecommunication systems.

Single-emitter microscopy has emerged as a promising method of imaging nanostructures with nanoscale resolution. This technique uses the centroid position of an emitter's far-field radiation pattern to infer its position to a precision that is far below the diffraction limit. However, nanostructures composed of high-dielectric materials such as noble metals can distort the far-field radiation pattern. Previous work has shown that these distortions can significantly degrade the imaging of the local density of states in metallic nanowires using polarization-resolved imaging. But unlike nanowires, nanoparticles do not have a well-defined axis of symmetry, which makes polarization-resolved imaging difficult to apply. Nanoparticles also exhibit a more complex range of distortions, because in addition to introducing a high dielectric surface, they also act as efficient scatterers. Thus, the distortion effects of nanoparticles in single-emitter microscopy remains poorly understood. Here we demonstrate that metallic nanoparticles can significantly distort the accuracy of single-emitter imaging at distances exceeding 300 nm. We use a single quantum dot to probe both the magnitude and the direction of the metallic nanoparticle-induced imaging distortion and show that the diffraction spot of the quantum dot can shift by more than 35 nm. The centroid position of the emitter generally shifts away from the nanoparticle position, which is in contradiction to the conventional wisdom that the nanoparticle is a scattering object that will pull in the diffraction spot of the emitter toward its center. These results suggest that dielectric distortion of the emission pattern dominates over scattering. We also show that by monitoring the distortion of the quantum dot diffraction spot we can obtain high-resolution spatial images of the nanoparticle, providing a new method for performing highly precise, subdiffraction spatial imaging. These results provide a better understanding of the complex near-field coupling between emitters and nanostructures and open up new opportunities to perform super-resolution microscopy with higher accuracy.

We present an all-dielectric photonic crystal structure that supports two-dimensionally confined helical topological edge states. The topological properties of the system are controlled by the crystal parameters. An interface between two regions of differing band topologies gives rise to topological edge states confined in a dielectric slab that propagate around sharp corners without backscattering. Three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain calculations show these edges to be confined in the out-of-plane direction by total internal reflection. Such nanoscale photonic crystal architectures could enable strong interactions between photonic edge states and quantum emitters.

We propose a method to perform single-shot optical readout of a quantum bit (qubit) using cavity quantum electrodynamics. We selectively couple the optical transitions associated with different qubit basis states to the cavity and utilize the change in cavity transmissivity to generate a qubit readout signal composed of many photons. We show that this approach enables single-shot optical readout even when the qubit does not have a good cycling transition, which is required for standard resonance fluorescence measurements. We calculate the probability that the measurement detects the correct qubit state using the example of a quantum-dot spin under various experimental conditions and demonstrate that it can exceed 0.99.

We propose a design for nanoscale dielectric slab photonic crystals that possess topological edge states. Finite-difference-time-domain simulations show controllable directional light propagation with circularly-polarized dipole excitations and backscattering-free propagation around sharp corners.

We describe and employ a recently developed polaron master equation model to study the fluorescence spectra of a coherently driven quantum dot (QD) placed within a high-Q semiconductor microcavity (with Q the quality factor). We investigate phonon-induced damping in a regime where many cavity photons are required, and we also compare the resonance fluorescence spectra obtained using an effective phonon master equation in Lindblad form where simple analytical expressions are identified for various phonon-induced scattering rates. We consider two separate continuous-wave pumping scenarios, where either the system is driven through exciton pumping or the system is driven via the cavity. The cavity-QED (quantum electrodynamics) system is pumped sufficiently strongly such that the low-energy sideband of the Mollow triplet is tuned across the cavity mode resonance which is negatively detuned from the QD. For comparison, we also consider the case where the QD-cavity detuning is large enough such that the Mollow triplets do not spectrally overlap with the cavity mode. We find that the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the high-energy Mollow sideband shows a pronounced nonlinear dependence on the pump intensity when the low-energy component of the triplet overlaps with the cavity mode (or vice versa), and can even be reduced with increased pumping. However, the FWHM depends linearly on the pump intensity when the Mollow triplets are far from the cavity resonance. We observe similar fluorescence spectra for both the exciton-driven system and the cavity-driven system.

In order to obtain a high photovoltaic (PV) efficiency, a solar cell must operate at both a high current and voltage. The current is determined by the semiconductor's ability to convert above-bandgap photons into electron-hole pairs that can be collected, while the maximum achievable voltage depends on maximizing the carrier densities and minimizing recombination within the cell. For a high quality semiconductor like GaAs, which has been shown to have an internal fluorescence yield of 99.7%, non-radiative recombination can be minimized to the point where the PV efficiency is limited by radiative emission from the cell. Here we show an improvement in output voltage and efficiency by engineering the spontaneous emission rate using photonic crystal structures. The proposed device is composed of a GaAs PV cell that has been nano-patterned with photonic crystals in order to control carrier spontaneous emission and, as a result, increase device output voltage. In the proposed device, this emission control is achieved by tuning the bandgap of the photonic crystal structure near the semiconductor band edge. Under these operating conditions, the open circuit voltage is increased by a factor of -(kBT/q) ln[FP], where FP is defined as the ratio of the spontaneous emission rate in the nano-patterned solar cell to the spontaneous emission rate in bulk GaAs. By engineering small FP the voltage of the device can be significantly improved, leading to photovoltaic efficiencies of ∼36% from a single junction device.

We experimentally realize a solid-state spin-photon transistor using a quantum dot strongly coupled to a photonic crystal cavity. We are able to control the light polarization through manipulation of the quantum dot spin states. The spinphoton transistor is crucial for realizing a quantum logic gate or generating hybrid entanglement between a quantum dot spin and a photon. Our results represent an important step towards semiconductor based quantum logic devices and onchip quantum networks.

Vacuum Rabi oscillation is a damped oscillation in which energy can transfer between an atomic excitation and a photon when an atom is strongly coupled to a photonic cavity. This process is challenging to be coherently controlled due to the fact that interaction between the atom and the electromagnetic resonator needs to be modulated in a quick manner compared to vacuum Rabi frequency. This control has been achieved at microwave frequencies, but has remained challenging to be implemented in the optical domain. Here we demonstrated coherent control of energy transfer in a semiconductor quantum dot strongly coupled to a photonic crystal molecule by manipulating the vacuum Rabi oscillation of the system. Instead of using a single photonic crystal cavity, we utilized a photonic crystal molecule consisting two coupled photonic crystal defect cavities to obtain both strong quantum dot-cavity coupling and cavityenhanced AC stark shift. In our system the AC stark shift modulates the coupling interaction between the quantum dot and the cavity by shifting the quantum dot resonance, on timescales (picosecond) shorter than the vacuum Rabi period. We demonstrated the ability to transfer excitation between a quantum dot and cavity, and performed coherent control of light-matter states. Our results provides an ultra-fast approach for probing and controlling light-matter interactions in an integrated nanophotonic device, and could pave the way for gigahertz rate synthesis of arbitrary quantum states of light at optical frequencies.

We experimentally realize a solid-state spin-photon transistor using a quantum dot strongly coupled to a photonic crystal cavity. We are able to control the light polarization through manipulation of the quantum dot spin states.

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., Comment: The final version of this paper is published online on Nature Nanotechnology (doi:10.1038/nnano.2015.334). Supplementary materials are available in the same link

We demonstrate a method to probe the local density of states of surface plasmon polaritons using single quantum dots. We attain better than 10 nm spatial precision, and directly observe image dipole interference.

The visible light photon counter (VLPC) features high quantum efficiency (QE) and low pulse height dispersion. These properties make it ideal for efficient photon-number state detection. The ability to perform efficient photon-number state detection is important in many quantum information processing applications, including recent proposals for performing quantum computation with linear optical elements. In this paper, we investigate the unique capabilities of the VLPC. The efficiency of the detector and cryogenic system is measured at 543 nm wavelengths to be 85%. A picosecond pulsed laser is then used to excite the detector with pulses having average photon numbers ranging from 3-5. The output of the VLPC is used to discriminate photon numbers in a pulse. The error probability for number state discrimination is an increasing function of the number of photons, due to buildup of multiplication noise. This puts an ultimate limit on the ability of the VLPC to do number state detection. For many applications, it is sufficient to discriminate between 1 and more than one detected photon. The VLPC can do this with 99% accuracy.

We demonstrate coupling of lead halide perovskite nanocrystals to a nanophotonic cavity. From photoluminescence measurements, we observe a factor of 10 enhancement in brightness from the cavity mode emission. We perform room temperature time-resolved lifetime measurements that demonstrate an average spontaneous emission rate enhancement of 2.9 for perovskite nanocrystals within the cavity as compared to those located on the unpatterned surfaces. Our method provides a way towards realizing efficient light emitters and low-threshold lasers, as well as fast nonlinear optical devices, using solution processable materials.

Generating strong interactions between single quanta of light and matter is central to quantum information science, and a key component of quantum computers and long-distance quantum networks. In quantum information processing, these interactions are required to create elementary logic operations (quantum gates) between stationary matter quantum bits (qubits) and photonic qubits that can be transmitted over long distances. Efficient quantum gates between photonic and matter qubits are a crucial enabler for a broad range of applications that include robust quantum networks, nondestructive quantum measurements, and strong photon-photon interactions. So far these qubit-photon gates have been achieved using single atoms and at microwave frequencies in circuit QED systems. Their implementation with solidstate quantum emitters, however, has remained a difficult challenge. We demonstrate that the qubit state of a photon can be controlled by a single solid-state qubit composed of a quantum dot (QD) strongly coupled to an optical nanocavity. We show that the QD acts as a coherently controllable qubit system that conditionally flips the polarization of a photon reflected from the cavity mode on picosecond timescales. This operation implements a controlled NOT (cNOT) logic gate between the QD and the incident photon, which is a universal quantum operation that can serve as a general light-matter interface for remote entanglements and quantum computations. Our results represent an important step towards an all solid-state implementation of quantum networks and quantum computers, and provide a versatile approach for controlling and probing interactions between a photon and a single quantum emitter on ultra-fast timescales.