Single-photon sources are one of the key components in quantum photonics applications. These sources ideally emit a single photon at a time, are highly efficient, and could be integrated in photonic circuits for complex quantum system designs. Various platforms to realize such sources have been actively studied, among which semiconductor quantum dots have been found to be particularly attractive. Furthermore, quantum dots embedded in bottom-up-grown III–V compound semiconductor nanowires have been found to exhibit relatively high performance as well as beneficial flexibility in fabrication and integration. Here, we review fabrication and performance of these nanowire-based quantum sources and compare them to quantum dots in top-down-fabricated designs. The state of the art in single-photon sources with quantum dots in nanowires is discussed. We also present current challenges and possible future research directions.

Spectral irradiance data are often used to calculate colorimetric properties, such as color coordinates and color temperatures of light sources by integration. The spectral data may contain unknown correlations that should be accounted for in the uncertainty estimation. We propose a new method for estimating uncertainties in such cases. The method goes through all possible scenarios of deviations using Monte Carlo analysis. Varying spectral error functions are produced by combining spectral base functions, and the distorted spectra are used to calculate the colorimetric quantities. Standard deviations of the colorimetric quantities at different scenarios give uncertainties assuming no correlations, uncertainties assuming full correlation, and uncertainties for an unfavorable case of unknown correlations, which turn out to be a significant source of uncertainty. With 1% standard uncertainty in spectral irradiance, the expanded uncertainty of the correlated color temperature of a source corresponding to the CIE Standard Illuminant A may reach as high as 37.2 K in unfavorable conditions, when calculations assuming full correlation give zero uncertainty, and calculations assuming no correlations yield the expanded uncertainties of 5.6 K and 12.1 K, with wavelength steps of 1 nm and 5 nm used in spectral integrations, respectively. We also show that there is an absolute limit of 60.2 K in the error of the correlated color temperature for Standard Illuminant A when assuming 1% standard uncertainty in the spectral irradiance. A comparison of our uncorrelated uncertainties with those obtained using analytical methods by other research groups shows good agreement. We reestimated the uncertainties for the colorimetric properties of our 1 kW photometric standard lamps using the new method. The revised uncertainty of color temperature is a factor of 2.5 higher than the uncertainty assuming no correlations.

Analysis of the reflectance losses of the predictable quantum efficient detector (PQED) operated at room temperature is presented. An efficient method of using the ratio of photocurrents from the two photodiodes of the PQED is developed to determine the reflectance losses without direct measurement of the reflectance for an unknown state of polarization of the incident light. A detailed analysis is presented to estimate the associated reflectance losses for detectors with either seven or nine internal reflections. For the 7-reflection PQED, the relative standard uncertainty component of spectral responsivity due to reflectance loss correction can be reduced mostly below 100 ppm with the photocurrent ratio measurement whereas for the 9-reflection PQED the uncertainties remain below 20 ppm in the wavelength range from 400 to 900 nm with an uncontrolled polarization state of the incident light.

This thesis consists of an overview and of the following publications which are referred to in the text by their Roman numerals.

Semiconductor nanowires are of interest as light emitters in applications such as light-emitting diodes and single-photon sources. Due to the three-dimensional geometry in combination with a size comparable to the wavelength of the emitted light, nanowires have shown strong scattering effects for the emitted light. Here, we demonstrate with electromagnetic modeling that the emission properties of nanowires/nanocones show a complicated dependence on the geometry of the nanowire/nanocone, the shape and position of the emitter region, and the polarization of the emitter. We show that with proper design, the extraction efficiency can close in on 80% for as-grown single nanowires/nanocones. Importantly, we demonstrate how the internal quantum efficiency of the emitter plays a large role in the design process. A considerably different geometry design approach should be undertaken at low and high internal quantum efficiency. Due to the complicated design optimization, we strongly recommend the use of electromagnetic modeling of the emission to give guidance for suitable designs before starting the fabrication and processing of nanowire/nanocone-based light emitters.