Photon Correlation Measurements Research Articles

Telecommunications-band heralded single photons from a silicon nanophotonic chip

We demonstrate room temperature heralded single photon generation in a CMOS-compatible silicon nanophotonic device. The strong modal confinement and slow group velocity provided by a coupled resonator optical waveguide produced a large four-wave-mixing nonlinearity coefficient γeff≈4100 W−1 m−1 at telecommunications wavelengths. Spontaneous four-wave-mixing using a degenerate pump beam at 1549.6 nm created photon pairs at 1529.5 nm and 1570.5 nm with a coincidence-to-accidental ratio exceeding 20. A photon correlation measurement of the signal (1529.5 nm) photons heralded by the detection of the idler (1570.5 nm) photons showed antibunching with g(2)(0)=0.19±0.03. The demonstration of a single photon source within a silicon platform holds promise for future integrated quantum photonic circuits.

Fast periodic modulations in the photon correlation of single-mode vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

We report on the observation of periodic modulations in the second-order photon correlation of single-mode vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) in steady-state operations. We realized the fast photon correlation measurement of VCSELs by using a streak camera operated in a photon-counting mode. Fast modulation signals were observed in second-order photon correlations at and around the threshold.The calculations using photon rate equations that include a gain medium dynamics shows that the oscillating signals originate from relaxation oscillations.

Longitudinal and transverse exciton-spin relaxation in a single InAsP quantum dot embedded inside a standing InP nanowire using photoluminescence spectroscopy

We have investigated the optical properties of a single InAsP quantum dot embedded in a standing InP nanowire. A regular array of nanowires was fabricated by epitaxial growth and electron-beam patterning. The elongation of transverse exciton spin relaxation time of the exciton state with decreasing excitation power was observed by first-order photon correlation measurements. This behavior is well explained by the motional narrowing mechanism induced by Gaussian fluctuations of environmental charges in the InP nanowire. The longitudinal exciton spin relaxation time was evaluated by the degree of the random polarization of emission originating from exciton state confined in a single nanowire quantum dots by using Mueller Calculus based on Stokes parameters representation.

Cascaded single-photon emission from the Mollow triplet sidebands of a quantum dot

Emission from a resonantly excited quantum emitter is a fascinating research topic within quantum optics and a useful source for different types of quantum light fields. The resonance spectrum consists of a single spectral line below saturation of a quantum emitter which develops into a triplet at powers above saturation of the emitter. The spectral properties of the triplet strongly depends on pump power and detuning of the excitation laser. The three closely spaced photon channels from the resonance fluorescence have different photon statistical signatures. We present a detailed photon-statistics analysis of the resonance fluorescence emission triplet from a solid state-based artificial atom, i.e. a semiconductor quantum dot. The photon correlation measurements demonstrate both 'single' and 'heralded' photon emission from the Mollow triplet sidebands. The ultra-bright and narrowband emission (5.9 MHz into the first lens) can be conveniently frequency-tuned by laser detuning over 15 times its linewidth ({\Delta \nu} \approx 1.0 GHz). These unique properties make the Mollow triplet sideband emission a valuable light source for, e.g.quantum light spectroscopy and quantum information applications.

On-chip single photon emission from an integrated semiconductor quantum dot into a photonic crystal waveguide

We demonstrate the in-plane emission of highly polarized single photons from an InAs quantum dot embedded into a photonic crystal waveguide. The spontaneous emission rates are Purcell-enhanced by the coupling of the quantum dot to a slow-light mode of the waveguide. Photon-correlation measurements confirm the sub-Poissonian statistics of the in-plane emission. Under optical pulse excitation, single photon emission rates of up to 19 MHz into the guided mode are demonstrated, which corresponds to a device efficiency of 24%. These results herald the monolithic integration of sources in photonic quantum circuits.

Four-photon cascade from quadexcitons in a single GaAs quantum dot

We demonstrate the generation of temporally correlated four photons emitted by the cascade recombination of a quadexciton in a self-assembled GaAs quantum dot (QD) by performing single photon correlation measurements. The cascade decay of the quadexciton involves a triexciton, a biexciton, and an exciton. The emissions of these states are identified in the photoluminescence (PL) spectrum of the QD by cross-correlation measurements. Polarization-resolved cross-correlation measurements show that the polarizations of the four photons are partly correlated. Radiative, nonradiative, and polarization flipping rates in the QD are estimated from the bunching visibilities of the cross-correlation measurements and the PL lifetimes.

A single nitrogen-vacancy defect coupled to a nanomechanical oscillator

A single Nitrogen Vacancy (NV) center hosted in a diamond nanocrystal is positioned at the extremity of a SiC nanowire. This novel hybrid system couples the degrees of freedom of two radically different systems, i.e. a nanomechanical oscillator and a single quantum object. The dynamics of the nano-resonator is probed through time resolved nanocrystal fluorescence and photon correlation measurements, conveying the influence of a mechanical degree of freedom given to a non-classical photon emitter. Moreover, by immersing the system in a strong magnetic field gradient, we induce a magnetic coupling between the nanomechanical oscillator and the NV electronic spin, providing nanomotion readout through a single electronic spin. Spin-dependent forces inherent to this coupling scheme are essential in a variety of active cooling and entanglement protocols used in atomic physics, and should now be within the reach of nanomechanical hybrid systems.

Optical Sensing of Current Dynamics in Organic Light‐Emitting Devices at the Nanometer Scale

Photoluminescence quenching of single dibenzoterrylene (DBT) dye molecules in a polymeric organic light-emitting diode was utilized to analyze the current dynamics at nanometer resolution. The quenching mechanism of single DBT molecules results from an increase in the triplet-state population induced by charge carrier recombination on individual guest molecules. As a consequence of the long triplet-state relaxation time, its population results in a reduced photoluminescence of the dispersed fluorescent dyes. From the decrease in photoluminescence together with photon correlation measurements, we could quantify the local current density and its time-dependent evolution in the vicinity of the single-molecule probe. This optical technique establishes a non-invasive approach to map the time-resolved current density in organic light-emitting diodes on the nanometer scale.

Photon extrabunching in ultrabright twin beams measured by two-photon counting in a semiconductor.

For many years twin beams originating from parametric down-converted light beams have aroused great interest and attention in the photonics community. One particular aspect of the twin beams is their peculiar intensity correlation functions, which are related to the coincidence rate of photon pairs. Here we take advantage of the huge bandwidth offered by two-photon absorption in a semiconductor to quantitatively determine correlation functions of twin beams generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion. Compared with classical incoherent sources, photon extrabunching is unambiguously and precisely measured, originating from exact coincidence between down-converted pairs of photons, travelling in unison. These results strongly establish that two-photon counting in semiconductors is a powerful tool for the absolute measurement of light beam photon correlations at ultrashort timescales.

Extrapolation of the intensity autocorrelation function of a quantum-dot micropillar laser into the thermal emission regime

We present investigations on the coherence of the emission from the fundamental mode of an AlGaInAs/GaAs quantum-dot microcavity laser. We measure the first-order field-correlation function g(1)(τ) with a Michelson interferometer, from which we determine coherence times of up to 20 ns for the highest pump powers. To fully characterize the coherence properties of the cavity emission, we apply a phenomenological model that connects the first- and second-order correlation functions. Hereby it is possible to overcome the limited sensitivity of the streak camera used for photon-correlation measurements, and thus to extend the accessible excitation-power range for g(2)(τ) down to the thermal regime.

Polarization Modulation Spectroscopy of Single Fluorescent Nanodiamonds with Multiple Nitrogen Vacancy Centers

A technique based on polarization modulation spectroscopy (PMS) has been developed to determine quantitatively the number of fluorophores in nanoparticles at the single-molecule level. The technique involves rotation of the polarization of the excitation laser on a millisecond time scale, leading to fluorescence intensity modulation. By taking account of the heterogeneous orientation among the dipoles of the fluorophores and simulating the modulation depth distribution with Monte Carlo calculations, we show that it is possible to deduce the ensemble average and number distribution of the fluorophores. We apply the technique to fluorescent nanodiamonds (FNDs) containing multiple nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers. Comparing the experimental and simulated modulation depth distributions of 11 nm FNDs, we deduce an average number of <N> = 3, which is in good agreement with independent photon correlation measurements. The method is general, rapid, and applicable to other nanoparticles, polymers, and molecular complexes containing multiple and randomly orientated fluorophores as well.

Surface plasmon resonance imaging detection of silver nanoparticle-tagged immunoglobulin

The detection sensitivity of silver nanoparticle (AgNP)-tagged goat immunoglobulin G (gIgG) microarrays was investigated by studying surface plasmon resonance (SPR) images captured in the visible wavelength range with the help of a Kretchmann-configured optical coupling set-up. The functionalization of anti-gIgG molecules on the AgNP surface was studied using transmission electron microscopy, photon correlation measurements and UV-visible absorption spectroscopy. A value of 1.3×10(7) M(-1) was obtained for the antibody-antigen binding constant by monitoring the binding events at a particular resonance wavelength. The detection limit of this SPR imaging instrument is 6.66 nM of gIgG achieved through signal enhancement by a factor of larger than 4 owing to nanoparticle tagging with the antibody.

Biexciton quantum yield of single semiconductor nanocrystals from photon statistics.

Biexciton properties strongly affect the usability of a light emitter in quantum photon sources and lasers but are difficult to measure for single fluorophores at room temperature due to luminescence intermittency and bleaching at the high excitation fluences usually required. Here, we observe the biexciton (BX) to exciton (X) to ground photoluminescence cascade of single colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) under weak excitation in a g((2)) photon correlation measurement and show that the normalized amplitude of the cascade feature is equal to the ratio of the BX to X fluorescence quantum yields. This imposes a limit on the attainable depth of photon antibunching and provides a robust means to study single emitter biexciton physics. In NC samples, we show that the BX quantum yield is considerably inhomogeneous, consistent with the defect sensitivity expected of the Auger nonradiative recombination mechanism. The method can be extended to study X,BX spectral and polarization correlations.

Correlation measurements of individual microwave photons emitted from a symmetric cavity

Superconducting circuits have been successfully established as systems to prepare and investigate microwave light fields at the quantum level. In contrast to optical experiments where light is detected using photon counters, microwaves are usually measured with well developed linear amplifiers. This makes measurements of correlation functions - one of the important tools in optics - harder to achieve because they traditionally rely on photon counters and beam splitters. Here, we demonstrate a system where we can prepare on demand single microwave photons in a cavity and detect them at the two outputs of the cavity using linear amplifiers. Together with efficient data processing, this allows us to measure different observables of the cavity photons, including the first-order correlation function. Using these techniques we demonstrate cooling of a thermal background field in the cavity.

Polarization-correlated photon pairs from charged biexciton in a single GaAs quantum dot

We have studied micro-photoluminescence spectra of self-assembled single GaAs/AlGaAs quantum dots (QDs). Under non-resonant optical excitation, a single GaAs QD exhibits several sharp peaks in the PL spectra whose origins are the recombination of neutral or charged multi-excitonic complexes. In single photon correlation measurements, photons emitted from charged biexcitons and charged excitons show bunching which indicates that photon pairs are generated from the cascade recombination of the charged biexcitons. The result of polarization correlation measurements shows that each photon of the pairs is polarized linearly and orthogonally. These polarization features can be understood by the superposition of elliptically polarized photons affected by the electron–hole exchange interaction in the anisotropic QD.

Dependence of Single-photon Emission from Single Conjugated Polymer Chains on Their Spatial Size as Determined by Photon-correlation Measurements in Fluid Solution

Abstract Photon-correlation measurements were applied to single chains of poly[2-methoxy-5-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-p-phenylene vinylene] of various molecular weights in a fluid solvent in order to investigate the relationship between the probability of single-photon emission and spatial size of the chains. We clearly observed that polymer chains with faster translational diffusion time exhibited a high probability of single-photon emission. This result indicates that the photon antibunching behavior of single conjugated polymer chains is strongly correlated with their spatial size, and that the polymer chains can be made to behave as single-photon sources by controlling the size.

Optical properties of red emitting self-assembled InP/(Al_020Ga_080)_051In_049P quantum dot based micropillars

Using focused ion beam etching techniques, micropillar cavities were fabricated from a high reflective AlAs/AlGaAs distributed Bragg reflector planar cavity containing self-assembled InP quantum dots in (Al(0.20)Ga(0.80))(0.51)In(0.49)P barrier layers. The mode spectra of pillars with different diameters were investigated using micro-photoluminescence, showing excellent agreement with theory. Quality factors of the pillar cavities up to 3650 were observed. Furthermore, for a microcavity pillar with 1.26 mum diameter, single-photon emission is demonstrated by performing photon correlation measurements under pulsed excitation.

Vertical electric field tuning of the exciton fine structure splitting and photon correlation measurements of GaAs quantum dot

The effects of a vertical electric field on the fine structure splitting of neutral exciton of monolayer fluctuation GaAs quantum dots were investigated. Using the gate voltage between the top gate electrode and the bottom n-GaAs substrate, the fine structure splitting of the neutral exciton was tuned to 15–30 μeV. Photon correlation measurements demonstrate neutral exciton single photon emission and neutral exciton—biexciton cascaded emission.

Single-photon emission by semiconductor quantum rings in a photonic crystal

Photon correlation measurements on single InAs/GaAs quantum rings embedded in a photonic crystal lattice demonstrate single-photon emission with g(2)(0) values of 0.4 and photon antibunching between the exciton and biexciton emissions. The measured photon antibunching times of the excitons are longer than that of the biexcitons, resulting in the time asymmetry of the exciton-biexciton photon cross-correlation. Phonon sidebands due to the piezoelectric coupling of excitons to acoustic phonons broaden the emission lines and shift them to lower energies at low excitation intensity.

Observation of unique photon statistics of single artificial atom laser

We demonstrate a photonic crystal nanocavity laser essentially driven by a self-assembled InAs/GaAs single quantum dot gain and its unique photon statistics. Gain tuning measurements and photon correlation measurements indicated that a single quantum dot plays a substantial role in the laser oscillation. Photon correlation measurements showed a distinct transition from anti-bunching to Poissonian via photon bunching around the threshold with the increase of the excitation power. Numerical simulations, including contributions of other light sources besides a single quantum dot, indicated that the photon bunching feature around the threshold can be enhanced by the interfusion of incoherent photons into the cavity mode.