Cavity-resonant excitation for efficient single photon generation

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates an efficient single photon source using quantum dots in photonic crystal nanocavities, achieving reduced power requirements and improved selectivity through cavity-resonant excitation.

Contribution

It introduces a cavity-resonant excitation method that enhances single photon generation efficiency and selectivity in quantum dot-cavity systems.

Findings

100x reduction in optical power at saturation

Selective excitation of quantum dots via cavity mode

Cleaner single photon emission conditions

Abstract

We present an efficiently pumped single photon source based on single quantum dots (QD) embedded in photonic crystal nanocavities. Resonant excitation of a QD via a higher order cavity mode results in a 100$\times$ reduced optical power at the saturation onset of the photoluminescence, compared with excitation at the same frequency, after the cavity mode is detuned. Furthermore, we demonstrate that this excitation scheme leads to selective excitation of QDs coupled to the cavity by comparing photoluminescence and auto-correlation spectra for the same excitation wavelength with and without the cavity mode. This provides much cleaner conditions for single photon generation.