Patent Description:
Single-photon sources (SPSs), in general, can be characterised as emitting a single photon at each trigger event, providing deterministic generation, i.e. every trigger event generates a photon, producing no entanglement between photons by default but multiple emitters can be used to generate entanglement. SPSs can be triggered optically or electrically.

A number of methods of making SPSs have been suggested. Quantum dot (QD)-based devices have emerged as a primary source of high-quality indistinguishable SPSs suitable for quantum applications. QDs exhibit discrete exciton energy levels. When an exciton decays it emits a single photon. In these systems, QDs are placed inside photonic structures, such as photonic crystal (PhC) waveguides, to extract SPS emission (see, e.g. <NPL>, and <CIT>). Optical resonators, often implemented as photonic crystal cavities (PhCC), can also be incorporated, for example in the waveguides, to impact emission properties. One option is to use the so-called Purcell enhancement of a cavity to reduce the QD exciton lifetime, increasing both the single photon emission rate and the resilience to dephasing processes such as charge noise that can compromise indistinguishability of the photons. Proof-of-principle demonstrations of this system (QD in a PhCC utilising Purcell enhancement) as suitable for generation of indistinguishable single photons at very high rates have been made.

One of the key challenges for making practical SPSs is ensuring that they are deterministic and that each photon is emitted within the smallest possible time uncertainty relative to the trigger. Resonant optical triggering schemes (i.e. with laser light of the same energy as the single-photon emission) are superior to electrical or off-resonant optical triggering as they avoid introducing intermediate electron/hole states that reduce determinism and increase time uncertainty. However, the major problem of resonant optical excitation schemes is the need to separate the driving laser from the single photon emission.

Previously it has been suggested (see e.g. "<NPL>; and "<NPL>]) to use asymmetric 2D-cavities to couple orthogonally polarized photonic cavity modes to a QD; one mode to the QD exciton transition and the other to the (slightly de-tuned) laser energy, therefore building a polarization-filtering scheme. In the systems described in both of these papers the cavity modes are aligned with the crystal axes and hence with the long and short axes of the elliptical micropillar. "<NPL>] describes a system which allows the angle between the cavity and the QD states to be changed.

<CIT> describes a single photon source comprising a first optical waveguide, a light emitter, a polarization unit, and a second optical waveguide that introduces excitation light into the polarization unit. <NPL>) describes chip-based quantum lights sources using planar photonic crystals. <CIT> describes a photon pair generating device which generates a correlation pair of photons by hyper-parametric scattering.

The present invention provides a photon source according to independent claim <NUM>. Further embodiments are provided by the dependent claims.

Referring to <FIG>, a quantum dot (QD) <NUM> of a group III arsenide, such as InGaAs, InAlAs, or InAS is grown by a self-assembling growth technique on a substrate, which may comprise GaAs or AlGaAs, (or InP if the QD is for use in telecommuncations applications) which results in an asymmetrical QD having a long axis y, which is along the longest diameter of the QD in the plane of the substrate, and a short axis x, which is the shortest diameter of the QD in the plane of the substrate, and perpendicular to the long axis. The long and short axes x, y are aligned with the crystallographic axis of the substrate and the QD.

In such a dot there are various electron energy bands, and an electron can be excited from one band up to a higher energy band, leaving a hole in the lower band. The combination of the electron and the hole is referred to as an exciton and the exciton has an energy associated with it, which is the transition energy of the electron between the bands. Different spin states of the electron and hole correspond to different orientations within the QD. The direction of spin of the electron is represented by the simple arrow ↑ and the direction of spin of the hole is represented by the open arrow⇑. Orientations that lie along the long and short axes are termed Xy and Xx respectively. In this case, the differing size of the electron confinement potentials gives rise to a fine structure splitting (FSS) between the energies of the two exciton states Xx and Xy. This FSS is shown in <FIG>. Transitions to and from different spin states are associated with photons of different polarization directions, and so in the arrangement of <FIG>, the x and y exciton resonances couple to photons of different energies and different polarizations. Light entering the QD will generally be polarized in the direction parallel to the plane of the substrate (and perpendicular to the direction of propagation). Therefore if the excitation laser pulses are directed in the H direction there will in general be no emission in the V direction because there is no way for the exciton to switch between the x and y states.

Referring to <FIG>, it is possible to describe the QD in any other orthogonal polarization basis, such as diagonal - anti-diagonal (D-A), which is rotated by <NUM> degrees relative to the V-H basis of <FIG> above. The D and A directions are interchangeable in this arrangement. In this energy scheme, laser excitation can be directed from one direction having polarization in one direction, the D direction, and emitted and collected photons can have an orthogonal polarization in the A direction and equal energy to the exciting photons as shown in <FIG>. In this D-A basis, exciton states will be |XD〉 and |XA〉 with corresponding decay rates γd and γA, which will be equal in absence of any other external constrains.

Using the D and A directions to excite and collect means that the excitation direction and the collection direction are offset from the long axis of the QD by the same angle, in this case <NUM>°. It will be appreciated that, provided the excitation and collection directions are offset from the long axis by equal angles, the excitation and collection exciton energies would potentially be equal. However if the excitation and collection directions are both offset from the long axis of the QD by an angle less than <NUM>° or more than <NUM>°, then the polarizations of the excitation and collection photons are no longer perpendicular and some cross-talk between the excitation and collection photons (i.e. between the waveguides in which those photons are transmitted as will be described below) occurs.

A D-polarized short resonant laser pulse (with Rabi frequency Ω(t) and pulse-area of π) creates a population of <NUM> in the |XD〉 state. The system will then oscillate with frequency δ (defined by the FSS - ℏδ) between |XD〉 and |XA〉 states with a decay rate from each one to the ground state, of γ = γD = γA as shown in Figure 3a. Here, population of the ground state |<NUM>〉 effectively means the cumulative probability of the single-photon emission in time, which in the absence of Purcell enhancement occurs on a timescale of approximately <NUM> nanosecond. Since the FSS oscillation is much faster than this, half of the single photons are emitted from each of the |XD〉 and |XA〉 states, and hence half of the emitted photons have D polarization and half have A polarization. After including out-of-plane losses (≈<NUM> %) and non-directional emission, the collection efficiency (η) from the end of a waveguide coupled to the |XA〉 state is <NUM> for realistic parameters.

The QD may be placed in a photonic structure arranged to transmit exciting photons into the QD and to collect emitted photons from the QD, with the photonic structure arranged to form waveguides such that A and D exciton states of the QD couple to the polarizations of the different waveguides. In this case, the first, D-polarized, waveguide delivers laser excitation pulses, and the second, A-polarized, waveguide is used to extract the emission. The second waveguide can also have an embedded resonator, Purcell enhancing only the |XA〉 transition, as shown schematically in <FIG>. If the resulting lifetime of the transition, <MAT>, is shorter than or comparable to the period of the FSS oscillation ( <MAT>), then after the first half-period of that oscillation when all of the 'population' revolves to the |XA〉 state it all (<NUM>-<NUM> % in the case of realistic parameters) decays producing an A-polarized photon emission as shown in Figure 3b.

Referring to <FIG>, in one arrangement arranged to operate as described above with reference to <FIG>, a single photon source may comprise a photon emitter in the form of a QD <NUM> as described above comprising a first material, such as InAs grown within a membrane <NUM> of a second material such as GaAs and having a long axis y and a short axis x (perpendicular to the plane of <FIG>). The membrane <NUM> is grown so as to form a photonic crystal structure <NUM> around the QD <NUM>. To form the structure, a sacrificial layer <NUM> of a third material such as AlGaAs is grown on the surface of a substrate <NUM>. A first layer 16a of the GaAs membrane material is then grown over the sacrificial layer <NUM>. The QD <NUM> is then grown on the first membrane layer 16a. Growth of the InAs on the GaAs results in the InAs forming into a number of QDs, one of which may be selected for use in the SPS. An array of holes <NUM> is then formed through the membrane material, using the selected QD <NUM> as the centre point. The holes <NUM> are formed by conventional methods which typically include creating a mask over the layer <NUM>, centred on the selected QD <NUM>, by photolithography and etching the holes followed by removing the mask. As well as etching the holes <NUM>, the etching step may also etch away the sacrificial layer <NUM>, leaving the membrane with the holes <NUM> through it and the QDs <NUM> supported within it. As can be seen in <FIG>, the holes <NUM> are formed in a regular array but with two perpendicular paths <NUM>, <NUM> extending through the array in which the holes <NUM> are not formed. These two paths form a stimulation waveguide <NUM> and a collection waveguide <NUM> extending through the layer <NUM> perpendicular to each other and crossing at the centre of the QD <NUM>. The waveguides <NUM>, <NUM> both extend in directions which are at <NUM>° to the long axis y and the short axis x of the QD <NUM>.

In operation, stimulation laser pulses are transmitted along the stimulation waveguide <NUM> having polarization in the D direction, and photons are collected on the collection waveguide <NUM> having polarization in the A direction.

Referring to <FIG>, an alternative arrangement for realising the structure of <FIG> is to form the QD <NUM>, for example of InAs on a layer 16a of, for example, GaAs as with <FIG>, but then to form nanobeam waveguides <NUM>, <NUM> on the GaAs layer 16a and over the QD <NUM>. Each of the nanobeam waveguides <NUM>, <NUM> comprises a straight strip of material, which is typically the same as the layer 16a, and therefore GaAs, formed by photolithography. Further layers, for example of AlGaAs, may be included for their electrical properties. The two waveguides <NUM>, <NUM> extend in mutually perpendicular directions and cross at the point where the QD <NUM> is formed. As with the embodiment of <FIG>, in this example the QD asymmetry is pinned to x-y axes, defined by GaAs crystallographic orientation. The waveguide photonic structure axes are in-plane, i.e. parallel to the plane of the substrate, but each oriented at <NUM> degrees to the x-y axes. The D-aligned waveguide <NUM> forms the excitation waveguide and is used for delivering trigger laser pulses <NUM> polarized in the D direction, and the A-aligned waveguide <NUM> forms the collection waveguide and is used to collect photons <NUM> polarized in the A direction. Each of the waveguides <NUM>, <NUM> may be coupled to the tapered end of an optical fibre <NUM> through which the laser stimulation pulses and collected photons are transmitted to and from the device.

In order to provide Purcell enhancement of the emission of photons into the collection waveguide <NUM>, a resonator may be provided in at least one of the waveguides <NUM>, <NUM>.

For example the excitation waveguide <NUM>, which couples only to the |XD〉 transition, may not be provided with a resonator and. The orthogonal, A-aligned collection waveguide <NUM>, which couples to the |XA〉 transition may have an asymmetric photonic crystal cavity which induces Purcell enhancement. This cavity may be formed by forming a Bragg reflector <NUM> on one side of the QD <NUM>, and a weaker Bragg reflector <NUM> on the opposite side of the QD <NUM>, with the two reflectors facing each other. The Bragg reflector <NUM> may be formed as a plurality of holes <NUM> formed in the waveguide with a regular spacing and aligned along the centre of the waveguide. This effectively prevents any emission of photons along the collection waveguide <NUM> in one direction which is opposite to the collection direction. The weaker Bragg reflector <NUM> comprises a similar array of holes, but fewer in number. This allows photons to be emitted along the collection waveguide in one direction, which is the collection direction. The asymmetry of the cavity leads to nearly <NUM>% directional emission of the single photons in the collection direction. The excitation waveguide <NUM> may have no resonator formed in it at all, as shown in <FIG>, or it may have a low Q factor resonator, formed for example as a single hole formed on each side of the QD <NUM>. This will reduce the laser power required to achieve a "π-pulse", but may also increase the probability of emission along the excitation waveguide <NUM>.

In addition to the reflector(s) formed in the collection waveguide <NUM>, a pair of reflectors may be formed in the excitation waveguide, one on each side of the QD <NUM>. In this case the reflectors are arranged to form a resonator with a central frequency that is detuned from the exciton energy by several times greater than the spectral width of the resonator mode. In this way, the emission of the QD into the excitation waveguide may be "Purcell supressed", offering potentially even greater efficiency into the collection waveguide, though at the expense of requiring additional excitation power.

Referring back to <FIG>, while no resonators are shown in those figures, they may be included in the form of further holes in the collection (and excitation) waveguides <NUM>, <NUM> having the same configuration as the holes <NUM> of <FIG>.

The embodiments of <FIG>, which involve the positioning of an asymmetric quantum dot in a particular design of wave guide, enable the input of source photons and the output of photons that have the same energy. They also provide an integrated on-chip filtering capability that does not require polarizers or spectral filters (which compromise the deterministic nature of the SPS by introducing loss) and has a total efficiency close to unity for realistic parameters. They can therefore also provide SPSs with high repetition rate, which is of a crucial importance since it is essential for large-scale on-chip photon de-multiplexing, which is an industry target of a proof-of-concept on-chip quantum computing device (see e.g. <NPL>)) and then would be required for the future devices. Also, given that quantum systems are extremely sensitive to the noise in the environment, the number of errorfree operations decreases exponentially with time, so ten times faster repetition rate provides even more dramatic theoretical increase in productivity. Finally, a higher repetition rate source also increases both the achievable range and bit-rate for secure quantum key distribution (QKD) with single photons.

Referring back to <FIG>, in a further embodiment the quantum dot <NUM> is round rather than oval and a magnetic field B is applied in the z direction, i.e. perpendicular to the plane of the waveguides. This gives rise to an energy diagram as shown in <FIG>. There are two circularly-polarized exciton states, one σ+ with the electron spin parallel to the magnetic field and one σ- with the electron spin antiparallel to the magnetic field. The direction of spin of the electron is represented in <FIG> by the simple arrow ↑ and the direction of spin of the hole is represented by the open arrow ⇑. These two states have different energies as shown in <FIG>. The difference between the two energies is the Zeeman energy, where the Zeeman energy EZ = gµB where g is the exciton "g-factor", µ is the Bohr magneton and B is the magnitude of the applied magnetic field. Referring to <FIG>, if an exciting photon is directed along the excitation waveguide, with polarization in the x-y plane and perpendicular to the magnetic field B, then the exciton will have electron and hole spin directions perpendicular to the magnetic field. This corresponds to a linearly polarized state of the exciton and can be considered as a superposition of the two circularly polarized exciton states shown in <FIG>, and this linearly polarized state will have an energy which is an average of the energies of the two states shown in <FIG>, as shown in <FIG>. Once excited into this state, the electron (and hole) will precess about the magnetic field between one state XD which is coupled to the excitation waveguide, and another state XA which is coupled to the collection waveguide. The frequency of precession depends on the strength of the magnetic field, and is given by gµB/<IMG> rather (rather than δ in the embodiment of <FIG> described above). It will be appreciated that, while the excitation and collection waveguides should be mutually perpendicular in this arrangement, to avoid cross-talk between them, the waveguides can be at any orientation within the plane of the photonic crystal structure, relative to the quantum dot.

While the embodiment described above uses a circular quantum dot, a similar result can be achieved using an oval quantum dot as shown in <FIG> provide the magnetic field is strong enough so that the Zeeman energy split shown in <FIG> is significantly greater than the fine structure energy split shown in <FIG>.

In further alternative arrangements, rather than a quantum dot <NUM>, other types of photon emitter may be used in combination with a magnetic field. For example the photon emitter may comprise a diamond crystal with a defect, such as a nitrogen-vacancy centre or a silicon-vacancy centre. In these defects, in particular negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy centres, electrons can be excited into various exciton states which can be coupled with polarized light in the excitation and collection waveguides in the same way as described above with reference to <FIG>. In a structure similar to that of <FIG> with a nitrogen-vacancy centre in diamond in place of the QD <NUM>, a magnetic field may be applied in the z direction, i.e. perpendicular to the plane of the waveguides, using suitably located electro-magnets, which gives rise to two circularly polarized eigenstates as described above with reference to <FIG>. In this case the device operates in a similar manner to that described above.

In either of the arrangements described above using a magnetic field, the structure of the device may be as shown in <FIG>, or as shown in <FIG>.

As a further alternative to the colour centres in diamond, defects in 2D materials (e.g. hexagonal boron nitride (hBN)) may also be used as the photon emitter. In this case the photonic crystal structure similar to that of <FIG> may be formed of silicon nitride, and a flake of the 2D material placed on the location of the quantum dot <NUM> of <FIG>. The 2D emitter then evanescently couples to the photonic crystal cavity.

Claim 1:
A photon source comprising: a photon emitter (<NUM>), an excitation waveguide (<NUM>, <NUM>) arranged to direct excitation photons having a first polarization direction (D) into the photon emitter, and a collection waveguide (<NUM>, <NUM>) arranged to collect photons having a second polarization direction (A) from the photon emitter, wherein the first polarization direction is coupled to a first exciton state (XD) of the photon emitter and the second polarization direction is non-parallel to the first polarization direction and is coupled to a second exciton state (XA) of the photon emitter, and the first and second exciton states have substantially equal energies.