On-demand storage and retrieval of single photons from a semiconductor quantum dot in a room-temperature atomic vapor memory

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the on-demand storage and retrieval of single photons emitted by a semiconductor quantum dot in a room-temperature atomic vapor memory, addressing key challenges in photonic quantum information processing.

Contribution

It presents the first integration of a semiconductor quantum dot single-photon source with a room-temperature atomic vapor memory for on-demand quantum storage.

Findings

Achieved variable retrieval times up to 19.8 ns

Stored single photons with an internal efficiency of 0.6%

Demonstrated control over photon-vapor interactions

Abstract

Interfacing light from solid-state single-photon sources with scalable and robust room-temperature quantum memories has been a long-standing challenge in photonic quantum information technologies due to inherent noise processes and time-scale mismatches between the operating conditions of solid-state and atomic systems. Here, we demonstrate on-demand storage and retrieval of single photons from a semiconductor quantum dot device in a room-temperature atomic vapor memory. A deterministically fabricated InGaAs quantum dot light source emits single photons at the wavelength of the cesium D1 line at 895\,nm which exhibit an inhomogeneously broadened linewidth of 5.1(7)\,GHz and are subsequently stored in a low-noise ladder-type cesium vapor memory. We show control over the interaction between the single photons and the atomic vapor, allowing for variable retrieval times of up to 19.8(3)\,ns at an internal efficiency of $\eta_\mathrm{int}=0.6(1)\%$. Our results significantly expand the application space of both room-temperature vapor memories and semiconductor quantum dots in future quantum network architectures.