Communications of the ACM
Breakthrough in Quantum Photonics Promises New Era in Optical Circuits
Researchers at the University of Southern California have shown that single photons can be emitted in a uniform way from quantum dots arranged in a precise pattern.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
University of Southern California (USC) researchers have taken a step toward quantum optical circuits, demonstrating uniform emission of single photons from quantum dots arranged in a precise configuration.
The research team used quantum-dot alignment methods pioneered by USC's Anupam Madhuka to generate single-quantum dots.
The researchers fabricated regular arrays of nanometer-sized mesas with a defined edge orientation, shape, and depth on a flat semiconductor substrate of gallium arsenide, then created quantum dots atop the mesas by adding appropriate atoms.
USC's Jiefei Zhang said the resulting uniformity enables usage of established techniques like local heating or electric fields to refine the quantum dots' photon wavelengths to match, which is crucial for interconnections between different quantum dots for circuits.
Said Zhang, "We now have an approach and a material platform to provide scalable and ordered sources generating potentially indistinguishable single-photons for quantum information applications."
From USC Viterbi School of Engineering
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Abstracts Copyright © 2021 SmithBucklin, Washington, DC, USA
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