On-demand generation of background-free single photons from a solid-state source
Lucas Schweickert (AlbaNova University Center)
Klaus D. Jöns (AlbaNova University Center)
Katharina D. Zeuner (AlbaNova University Center)
Saimon Filipe Covre Da Silva (Johannes Kepler University Linz)
Huiying Huang (Johannes Kepler University Linz)
Thomas Lettner (AlbaNova University Center)
Marcus Reindl (Johannes Kepler University Linz)
Julien Zichi (AlbaNova University Center)
Rinaldo Trotta (Sapienza University of Rome, Johannes Kepler University Linz)
Armando Rastelli (Johannes Kepler University Linz)
Val Zwiller (TU Delft - QN/Zwiller Lab, AlbaNova University Center, Kavli institute of nanoscience Delft)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
True on-demand high-repetition-rate single-photon sources are highly sought after for quantum information processing applications. However, any coherently driven two-level quantum system suffers from a finite re-excitation probability under pulsed excitation, causing undesirable multi-photon emission. Here, we present a solid-state source of on-demand single photons yielding a raw second-order coherence of g(2)(0)=(7.5±1.6)×10-5 without any background subtraction or data processing. To this date, this is the lowest value of g(2)(0) reported for any single-photon source even compared to the previously reported best background subtracted values. We achieve this result on GaAs/AlGaAs quantum dots embedded in a low-Q planar cavity by employing (i) a two-photon excitation process and (ii) a filtering and detection setup featuring two superconducting single-photon detectors with ultralow dark-count rates of (0.0056±0.0007) s-1 and (0.017±0.001) s-1, respectively. Re-excitation processes are dramatically suppressed by (i), while (ii) removes false coincidences resulting in a negligibly low noise floor.
help_outline