Ramsey fringes in a room temperature quantum dot semiconductor optical amplifier

TL;DR

This paper reports the first observation of Ramsey fringes in a room temperature quantum dot optical amplifier, demonstrating quantum coherence phenomena in a practical, electrically driven semiconductor device.

Contribution

It presents the experimental demonstration of Ramsey fringes at room temperature in a quantum dot ensemble, a phenomenon previously only observed at cryogenic temperatures in isolated dots.

Findings

Observation of clear Ramsey fringes at room temperature.

Mapping of decoherence dynamics and extraction of coherence time.

Identification of a unique phase delay phenomenon in the output pulse.

Abstract

The ability to induce, observe and control quantum coherent interactions in room temperature, electrically driven optoelectronic devices is of outmost significance for advancing quantum science and engineering towards practical applications. We demonstrate here a quantum interference phenomena, Ramsey fringes, in an inhomogeneously broadened InAs/InP quantum dot (QD) ensemble in the form of a 1.5 mm long optical amplifier operating at room temperature. Observation of Ramsey fringes in semiconductor QD was previously achieved only at cryogenic temperatures and only in isolated single dot systems. A high-resolution pump probe scheme where both pulses are characterized by cross frequency resolved optical gating (X-FROG) reveals a clear oscillatory behavior both in the amplitude and the instantaneous frequency of the probe pulse with a period that equals one optical cycle at operational wavelength. Using nominal input delays of 600 to 900 fs and scanning the separation around each delay in 1 fs steps, we map the evolution of the material de-coherence and extract a coherence time. Moreover we notice a unique phenomenon, which can not be observed in single dot systems, that the temporal position of the output probe pulse also oscillates with the same periodicity but with a quarter cycle delay relative to the intensity variations. This delay is the time domain manifestation of coupling between the real and imaginary parts of the complex susceptibility.