Regensburg 2002 – scientific programme

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HL: Halbleiterphysik

HL 6: Hauptvortrag

HL 6.1: Invited Talk

Monday, March 11, 2002, 14:30–15:15, H15

Single quantum dots in pillar microcavities: an effective solid-state single photon source — •Jean-Michel Gérard — CEA/DRFMC/SP2M/PSC, 17 rue des Martyrs, 38054 Grenoble Cedex 9

We review the recent development of a single-mode single-photon source based on an isolated semiconductor quantum dot (QD) in a pillar microcavity. The operation of this source relies on two basic phenomena: the strong Coulomb interaction between trapped carriers in QDs, which alows to prepare single photons, and the Purcell effect in microcavities, which allows to prepare these single photons in a given quantum state (same spatial mode, same polarisation). This novel source displays both a very weak residual probability of emitting two photons or more, as well as a high efficency. This unique combination makes it very promising for a future application to quantum key distribution or quantum information processing, in spite of an operating temperature limited until now to 50K. The prospects for room-temperature operation and for the generation of correlated photon pairs will also be discussed.