Phonon-mediated coupling between quantum dots through an off-resonant microcavity

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates phonon-mediated coupling between quantum dots in a microcavity, enabling frequency conversion through phonon interactions, with experimental evidence and a theoretical model explaining the process.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental demonstration of phonon-mediated coupling between quantum dots via an off-resonant microcavity, including a theoretical explanation.

Findings

Observation of frequency up- and down-conversion via phonons

Effective coupling in both weak and strong regimes

A simple theoretical model explaining phonon-mediated interactions

Abstract

We present experimental results showing phonon-mediated coupling between two quantum dots embedded inside a photonic crystal microcavity. With only one of the dots being spectrally close to the cavity, we observe both frequency up-conversion and down-conversion of the pump light via a $\sim1.2$ THz phonon. We demonstrate this process for both weak and strong regimes of dot-cavity coupling, and provide a simple theoretical model explaining our observations.