Swing-up of quantum emitter population using detuned pulses

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel off-resonant, frequency-modulated pulse scheme to efficiently excite quantum emitters, enabling high-quality single-photon generation without auxiliary particles.

Contribution

It proposes a new coherent excitation method using detuned pulses, enhancing population transfer in quantum emitters beyond traditional Rabi techniques.

Findings

Effective population swing-up with detuned pulses demonstrated

Scheme operates far below the band gap for spectral filtering

Potential for near-ideal single-photon generation

Abstract

The controlled preparation of the excited state in a quantum emitter is a prerequisite for its usage as single-photon sources - a key building block for quantum technologies. In this paper we propose a coherent excitation scheme using off-resonant pulses. In the usual Rabi scheme, these pulses would not lead to a significant occupation. This is overcome by using a frequency modulated pulse to swing up the excited state population. The same effect can be obtained using two pulses with different strong detunings of the same sign. We theoretically analyze the applicability of the scheme to a semiconductor quantum dot. In this case the excitation is several meV below the band gap, i.e., far away from the detection frequency allowing for easy spectral filtering, and does not rely on any auxiliary particles such as phonons. Our scheme has the potential to lead to the generation of close-to-ideal photons.