Cavity-enhanced single-shot readout of a quantum dot spin within 3 nanoseconds.

Rapid, high-fidelity single-shot readout of quantum states is a ubiquitous requirement in quantum information technologies. For emitters with a spin-preserving optical transition, spin readout can be achieved by driving the transition with a laser and detecting the emitted photons. The speed and fidelity of this approach is typically limited by low photon collection rates and measurement back-action. Here we use an open microcavity to enhance the optical readout signal from a semiconductor quantum dot spin state, largely overcoming these limitations. We achieve single-shot readout of an electron spin in only 3 nanoseconds with a fidelity of (95.2 ± 0.7)%, and observe quantum jumps using repeated single-shot measurements. Owing to the speed of our readout, errors resulting from measurement-induced back-action have minimal impact. Our work reduces the spin readout-time well below both the achievable spin relaxation and dephasing times in semiconductor quantum dots, opening up new possibilities for their use in quantum technologies.

Photon bound state dynamics from a single artificial atom.

The interaction between photons and a single two-level atom constitutes a fundamental paradigm in quantum physics. The nonlinearity provided by the atom leads to a strong dependence of the light-matter interface on the number of photons interacting with the two-level system within its emission lifetime. This nonlinearity unveils strongly correlated quasiparticles known as photon bound states, giving rise to key physical processes such as stimulated emission and soliton propagation. Although signatures consistent with the existence of photon bound states have been measured in strongly interacting Rydberg gases, their hallmark excitation-number-dependent dispersion and propagation velocity have not yet been observed. Here we report the direct observation of a photon-number-dependent time delay in the scattering off a single artificial atom-a semiconductor quantum dot coupled to an optical cavity. By scattering a weak coherent pulse off the cavity-quantum electrodynamics system and measuring the time-dependent output power and correlation functions, we show that single photons and two- and three-photon bound states incur different time delays, becoming shorter for higher photon numbers. This reduced time delay is a fingerprint of stimulated emission, where the arrival of two photons within the lifetime of an emitter causes one photon to stimulate the emission of another.

Real-Time Observation of Charge-Spin Cooperative Dynamics Driven by a Nonequilibrium Phonon Environment.

We report on experimental observations of charge-spin cooperative dynamics of two-electron states in a GaAs double quantum dot located in a nonequilibrium phonon environment. When the phonon energy exceeds the lowest excitation energy in the quantum dot, the spin-flip rate of a single electron strongly enhances. In addition, originated from the spatial gradient of phonon density between the dots, the parallel spin states become more probable than the antiparallel ones. These results indicate that spin is essential for further demonstrations of single-electron thermodynamic systems driven by phonons, which will greatly contribute to understanding of the fundamental physics of thermoelectric devices.

A gated quantum dot strongly coupled to an optical microcavity.

The strong-coupling regime of cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) represents the light-matter interaction at the fully quantum level. Adding a single photon shifts the resonance frequencies-a profound nonlinearity. Cavity QED is a test bed for quantum optics1-3 and the basis of photon-photon and atom-atom entangling gates4,5. At microwave frequencies, cavity QED has had a transformative effect6, enabling qubit readout and qubit couplings in superconducting circuits. At optical frequencies, the gates are potentially much faster; the photons can propagate over long distances and can be easily detected. Following pioneering work on single atoms1-3,7, solid-state implementations using semiconductor quantum dots are emerging8-15. However, miniaturizing semiconductor cavities without introducing charge noise and scattering losses remains a challenge. Here we present a gated, ultralow-loss, frequency-tunable microcavity device. The gates allow both the quantum dot charge and its resonance frequency to be controlled electrically. Furthermore, cavity feeding10,11,13-17, the observation of the bare-cavity mode even at the quantum dot-cavity resonance, is eliminated. Even inside the microcavity, the quantum dot has a linewidth close to the radiative limit. In addition to a very pronounced avoided crossing in the spectral domain, we observe a clear coherent exchange of a single energy quantum between the 'atom' (the quantum dot) and the cavity in the time domain (vacuum Rabi oscillations), whereas decoherence arises mainly via the atom and photon loss channels. This coherence is exploited to probe the transitions between the singly and doubly excited photon-atom system using photon-statistics spectroscopy18. The work establishes a route to the development of semiconductor-based quantum photonics, such as single-photon sources and photon-photon gates.

Angular momentum transfer from photon polarization to an electron spin in a gate-defined quantum dot.

Gate-defined quantum dots (QDs) are such a highly-tunable quantum system in which single spins can be electrically coupled, manipulated, and measured. However, the spins in gate-defined QDs are lacking its interface to free-space photons. Here, we verify that a circularly-polarized single photon can excite a single electron spin via the transfer of angular momentum, measured using Pauli spin blockade (PSB) in a double QD. We monitor the inter-dot charge tunneling which only occur when the photo-electron spin in one QD is anti-parallel to the electron spin in the other. This allows us to detect single photo-electrons in the spin-up/down basis using PSB. The photon polarization dependence of the excited spin state was finally confirmed for the heavy-hole exciton excitation. The angular momentum transfer observed here is a fundamental step providing a route to instant injection of spins, distributing single spin information, and possibly towards extending quantum communication.

Single electron-photon pair creation from a single polarization-entangled photon pair.

Quantum entanglement between different forms of qubits is an indication of the universality of quantum mechanics. Entanglement transfer between light and matter, especially photon and spin, has long been studied as the central concept, but it remains technically challenging for single photons and spins. In this paper, we show paired generation of a single electron in a GaAs quantum dot and a single photon from a single polarization-entangled photon pair. We measure temporal coincidence between the single photo-electron detection and the single photon detection. Considering a single photon polarization is converted to an electron spin via an optical selection rule, the present result indicates the capability of photon to spin entanglement transfer. This may be useful to explore the physics of entanglement transfer and also for applications to quantum teleportation based quantum communication.

Decoupling a hole spin qubit from the nuclear spins.

A huge effort is underway to develop semiconductor nanostructures as low-noise hosts for qubits. The main source of dephasing of an electron spin qubit in a GaAs-based system is the nuclear spin bath. A hole spin may circumvent the nuclear spin noise. In principle, the nuclear spins can be switched off for a pure heavy-hole spin. In practice, it is unknown to what extent this ideal limit can be achieved. A major hindrance is that p-type devices are often far too noisy. We investigate here a single hole spin in an InGaAs quantum dot embedded in a new generation of low-noise p-type device. We measure the hole Zeeman energy in a transverse magnetic field with 10 neV resolution by dark-state spectroscopy as we create a large transverse nuclear spin polarization. The hole hyperfine interaction is highly anisotropic: the transverse coupling is <1% of the longitudinal coupling. For unpolarized, randomly fluctuating nuclei, the ideal heavy-hole limit is achieved down to nanoelectronvolt energies; equivalently dephasing times up to a microsecond. The combination of large and strong optical dipole makes the single hole spin in a GaAs-based device an attractive quantum platform.

Ultrawide electrical tuning of light matter interaction in a high electron mobility transistor structure.

The interaction between intersubband resonances (ISRs) and metamaterial microcavities constitutes a strongly coupled system where new resonances form that depend on the coupling strength. Here we present experimental evidence of strong coupling between the cavity resonance of a terahertz metamaterial and the ISR in a high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) structure. The device is electrically switched from an uncoupled to a strongly coupled regime by tuning the ISR with epitaxially grown transparent gate. The asymmetric potential in the HEMT structure enables ultrawide electrical tuning of ISR, which is an order of magnitude higher as compared to an equivalent square well. For a single heterojunction with a triangular confinement, we achieve an avoided splitting of 0.52 THz, which is a significant fraction of the bare intersubband resonance at 2 THz.

Infrared transmission spectroscopy of charge carriers in self-assembled InAs quantum dots under surface electric fields.

We present a study on the intersublevel spacings of electrons and holes in a single layer of InAs self-assembled quantum dots. We use Fourier transform infrared transmission spectroscopy via a density chopping scheme for direct experimental observation of the intersublevel spacings of electrons without any external magnetic field. Epitaxial, complementary-doped and semi-transparent electrostatic gates are grown within the ultra high vacuum conditions of molecular beam epitaxy to voltage-tune the device, while a two dimensional electron gas (2DEG) serves as a back contact. Spacings of the hole sublevels are indirectly calculated from the photoluminescence spectrum by using a simple model given by Warburton et al [1]. Additionally, we observe that the intersubb and resonances of the 2DEG are enhanced due to the quantum dot layer on top of the device.