Anti-bunched photons from a lateral light-emitting diode

TL;DR

This paper reports the development of a lateral light-emitting diode that emits anti-bunched photons with sub-Poissonian statistics, potentially improving security in quantum key distribution systems.

Contribution

It introduces a simple-fabrication, high-bandwidth diode capable of anti-bunched photon emission, offering a practical alternative to attenuated lasers for quantum communication.

Findings

Achieved g^{(2)}(0)=0.7 at cryogenic temperatures.

Demonstrated GHz modulation bandwidth.

Outperformed attenuated lasers in multi-photon suppression.

Abstract

We demonstrate anti-bunched emission from a lateral-light emitting diode. Sub-Poissonian emission statistic, with a g$^{(2)}$(0)=0.7, is achieved at cryogenic temperature in the pulsed low-current regime, by exploiting electron injection through shallow impurities located in the diode depletion region. Thanks to its simple fabrication scheme and to its modulation bandwidth in the GHz range, we believe our devices are an appealing substitute for highly-attenuated lasers in existing quantum-key-distribution systems. Our devices outperform strongly-attenuated lasers in terms of multi-photon emission events and can therefore lead to a significant security improvement in existing quantum key distribution systems.