Low-Photon-Number Optical Switching with a Single Quantum Dot Coupled to a Photonic Crystal Cavity

Abstract

We demonstrate fast nonlinear optical switching between two laser pulses with as few as 140 photons of pulse energy by utilizing strong coupling between a single quantum dot (QD) and a photonic crystal cavity. The cavity-QD coupling is modified by a detuned pump pulse, resulting in a modulation of the scattered and transmitted amplitude of a time synchronized probe pulse that is resonant with the QD. The temporal switching response is measured to be as fast as 120 ps, demonstrating the ability to perform optical switching on picosecond timescales.

Two-Photon Interference from the Far-Field Emission of Chip-Integrated Cavity-Coupled Emitters

“…[22][23][24][25] Emitters coupled to cavities can also serve as highly nonlinear devices operating at low photon numbers, 26 as well as efficient interfaces between photons and solid-state quantum memory. 27,28 The majority of the work to-date focused on a single emitter in a cavity, which can exhibit nearly perfect single photon purity and indistinguishability using resonant pumping techniques.…”

Light flips transistor switch

“…Reported in May 2012 by Edo Waks of the Joint Quantum Institute at the University of Maryland in College Park and colleagues 3 , it switches when struck by a pulse of 140 photons. In principle, that is a small enough amount of energy to rival conventional routers.…”

Limitations of two-level emitters as nonlinearities in two-photon controlled-phase gates

“…Strong in-line nonlinearities and photon switching have been achieved by using Rubidium atoms strongly coupled to optical cavities [17,[24][25][26], quantum dots in photonic crystal cavities [27][28][29][30], and nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond [31]. The potentially deterministic nature of few-photon in-line nonlinearities makes this approach particularly attractive for the realization of photonic gates, and a number of proposals have been put forward to construct controlled-PHASE gates on various platforms and with various degrees of complexity [14,15,[32][33][34][35][36].…”