We report exciton spin memory in a single InAs(0.25)P(0.75) quantum dot embedded in an InP nanowire. By synthesizing clean quantum dots with linewidths as narrow as about 30 microeV, we are able to resolve individual spin states at magnetic fields on the order of 1 T. We can prepare a given spin state by tuning excitation polarization or excitation energy. These experiments demonstrate the potential of this system to form a quantum interface between photons and electrons.

We report the experimental demonstration of single-photon and cascaded photon pair emission in the infrared, originating from a single InAsP quantum dot embedded in a standing InP nanowire. A regular array of nanowires is fabricated by epitaxial growth on an electron-beam patterned substrate. Photoluminescence spectra taken on single quantum dots show narrow emission lines. Superconducting single photon detectors, which have a higher sensitivity than avalanche photodiodes in the infrared, enable us to measure auto and cross correlations. Clear antibunching is observed ͓g ͑2͒ ͑0͒ = 0.12͔ and we show a biexciton-exciton cascade, which can be used to create entangled photon pairs. © 2010 American Institute of Physics. ͓doi:10.1063/1.3506499͔Semiconductor quantum dot ͑QD͒ structures are attractive candidates for solid-state single photon and/or entangled-photon pair generation. 1-3 Nanowire QDs ͑NW-QDs͒ are promising candidates for such sources because of the controllability of doping, shape, and material freedom. 4,5 Fine structure splitting is predicted to be absent, which makes NW-QDs ideal for the creation of entangled photon pairs. 6 Single photon emission from a NW-QD has been shown at wavelengths shorter than 1000 nm. 7 However, a single photon NW-QD emitter at telecommunication wavelengths and a detailed study of its emission lines has not been reported, because until recently a single photon detector ͑SPD͒, with a high enough signal to noise ratio at infrared wavelengths and an adequate timing resolution was lacking. In this letter, we report on the fabrication and characterization of a regular array of InAsP QD embedded in an InP NW, emitting around 1.3 m and characterization of the QD photoluminescence ͑PL͒ using superconducting SPDs ͑SSPDs͒. We demonstrate controlled positioning of the NWs by growing them in a regular array. Control of the position is important for uniform growth, which is necessary for uniform QDs. SSPDs offer single photon detection with low dark counts, excellent timing resolution, and decent efficiency in the infrared, without the need for gating. In addition, SSPDs have very short dead times ͑10 ns͒ and no after pulsing. These characteristics enable us to perform auto and cross correlation experiments.Arrays of InAsP QDs embedded in InP NWs are synthesized by selective area metal organic vapor phase epitaxy ͑SA-MOVPE͒. 8 A metal catalyst is usually used ͑i.e., Au͒ to grow NW structures, however with SA-MOVPE a catalyst is not needed, preventing diffusion of the metal into the NW. A ͑111͒ InP wafer is covered by 30 nm of SiO 2 . By electron beam lithography and wet-etching, 40-60 nm diameter openings are created to form NW nucleation-sites. At a growth rate of 3 nm/s, first a 1 m long segment of InP is grown by adding trimethylindium and tertiarybutylphosphine ͑TBP͒ to the MOVPE reactor at 640°C. Subsequently the temperature is lowered to 580°C and arsine ͑AsH 3 ͒ is added to the reactor ͑V/III ratio 340, partial pressure TBP: AsH 3 3:1͒ to grow 8 to 10 nm InAsP to form the QDs. The ...

We report optical experiments of a charge tunable, single nanowire quantum dot subject to an electric field tuned by two independent voltages. First, we control tunneling events through an applied electric field along the nanowire growth direction. Second, we modify the chemical potential in the nanowire with a back-gate. We combine these two field-effects to isolate a single electron and independently tune the tunnel coupling of the quantum dot with the contacts. Such charge control is a first requirement for opto-electrical single electron spin experiments on a nanowire quantum dot.KEYWORDS Nanowires, optically-active quantum dots, single electron charging, opto-electronics S ingle, optically active quantum dots are widely investigated due to the ability to combine both single electron charging 1,2 and single 3 or entangled 4 photonemission, which are all key requirements for quantum information processing applications. 5 Nanowire quantum dots (NW-QDs) offer additional functionalities over selfassembled quantum dots since they are embedded in a onedimensional system instead of a three-dimensional host matrix. Therefore, the single electron (hole) transport channel is naturally aligned to the optically active quantum dot in the nanowire, advantageous for combining both quantum optics 6 and transport. [7][8][9] In addition, due to the small radial dimensions of the nanowires, electrostatic gate geometries are highly versatile 7,8 and axial heterostructure design is not limited by strain. As an example, the combination of Si sections, which are free of nuclear spins, with optically addressable electronic levels in III-V materials is promising for extending electron spin storage times. Prior to the work presented here, we have shown that a single InAsP quantum dot grown in an InP nanowire geometry is optically active, exhibits narrow emission lines, spin polarization memory effects, 10 and can be embedded in a LED device geometry. 11 Furthermore, it is predicted that NW-QDs are ideal sources of entangled photons due to the nanowire symmetry. 12 Recently, an electron spin-to-charge conversion read-out scheme has been proposed, 13 which is compatible with controlled storage of carriers up to microseconds. 14 Such storage times are promising since single spins in selfassembled quantum dots (SA-QDs) have been initialized, coherently manipulated, and read-out within picosecond time scales. 15,16 The proposed spin read-out scheme 13 highly depends on the overall tunnel coupling between the SA-QD energy levels and the continuum, determined by the quantum dot-to-contact spatial separation, which is fixed during growth. 17 In this letter, we present electrical control and optical read-out of the number of electrons residing in a single InAs 0.25 P 0.75 quantum dot embedded in an InP nanowire. We first identify the neutral exciton by photocurrent spectroscopy. Second, we demonstrate that the electron number can be controlled by an electric field applied along the nanowire growth direction or by an electrostatic bac...

We study the absorption and emission polarization of single semiconductor quantum dots in semiconductor nanowires. We show that the polarization of light absorbed or emitted by a nanowire quantum dot strongly depends on the orientation of the nanowire with respect to the directions along which light is incident or emitted. Light is preferentially linearly polarized when directed perpendicular to the nanowire elongation. In contrast, the degree of linear polarization is low for light directed along the nanowire. This result is vital for photonic applications based on intrinsic properties of quantum dots, such as generation of entangled photons. As an example, we demonstrate optical access to the spin states of a single nanowire quantum dot. [7,8,9,10,11] brings additional unique features such as natural alignment of vertically stacked QDs [12] and an inherent one-dimensional channel for charge carriers. Furthermore, the unprecedented material and design freedom makes them very attractive for novel opto-electronic devices [13,14,15,16,17,18] and quantum information science in general [19,20,21,22]. However, access to intrinsic spin and polarization properties of a QD in a NW has never been demonstrated, most likely due to an insufficient quality of the NW QDs. Moreover, the NW geometry strongly affects the polarization of photons emitted or absorbed by a NW QD, and thus becomes the main obstacle for applications based on intrinsic spin or polarization properties of QDs such as an electron spin memory [23] or generation of entangled photons [3]. Indeed, it has been shown that luminescence of pure NWs is highly linearly polarized and the polarization direction is parallel to the NW elongation [13,17,24].In this Letter we demonstrate that by directing light along the NW elongation we can access intrinsic spin and polarization properties of a QD in a NW. We introduce a theoretical model which intuitively explains our experimental findings and shows how polarization is affected by various parameters such as NW diameter, dielectric constant of the surroundings and photon wavelength. As an example, we demonstrate access to the spin properties of a Zeeman split exciton in a QD by measuring the right-and left-hand circular photon polarization.For our experiments we used single InAs 0.25 P 0.75 QDs embedded in InP NWs, grown by means of metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy [25,26,27,28]. Colloidal gold particles of 20 nm diameter were deposited on a (111)B InP substrate as catalysts for vertical NW growth. The diameter of the NW and the QD was controlled by the gold particle size, while the NW density was set by the gold particle density on the substrate. The QD height and NW length were determined by growth time [8]. By controlling diameter, height, and As concentration one can tune the QD emission in the wide range of 900 nm to 1.5 µm [9]. Under appropriate growth conditions we were able to grow a sample with low density of NWs with a single QD that emits around 950 nm. In Fig. 1a) we show a scanning electron microscope (SE...

We control the electrostatic environment of a single InAsP quantum dot in an InP nanowire with two contacts and two lateral gates positioned to an individual nanowire. We empty the quantum dot of excess charges and apply an electric field across its radial dimension. A large tuning range for the biexciton binding energy of 3 meV is obtained in a lateral electric field. At finite lateral electric field the exciton and biexciton emission overlap within their optical line width resulting in an enhancement of the observed photoluminescence intensity. The electric field dependence of the exciton and biexciton is compared to theoretical predictions and found to be in good qualitative agreement. This result is promising toward generating entangled photon pairs on demand without the requirement to remove the anisotropic exchange splitting from asymmetric quantum dots.

We report recent progress toward on-chip single photon emission and detection in the near infrared utilizing semiconductor nanowires. Our single photon emitter is based on a single InAsP quantum dot embedded in a p-n junction defined along the growth axis of an InP nanowire. Under forward bias, light is emitted from the single quantum dot by electrical injection of electrons and holes. The optical quality of the quantum dot emission is shown to improve when surrounding the dot material by a small intrinsic section of InP. Finally, we report large multiplication factors in excess of 1000 from a single Si nanowire avalanche photodiode comprised of p-doped, intrinsic, and n-doped sections. The large multiplication factor obtained from a single Si nanowire opens up the possibility to detect a single photon at the nanoscale.

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We have investigated the optical properties of a single InAsP quantum dot embedded in a standing InP nanowire. Elongation of the 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 nanowire. The longitudinal exciton-spin relaxation time is evaluated by the degree of the random polarization of emission originating from exciton states confined in a single-nanowire quantum dot by using Mueller calculus based on Stokes parameters representation. The reduction in the random polarization component with decreasing excitation power is caused by suppression of the exchange interaction of electron and hole due to an optically induced internal electric field by the dipoles at the wurtzite and zinc-blende heterointerfaces in the InP nanowire.