Patent Application: US-99775806-A

Abstract:
a novel and efficient method for polarization conversion , particularly from linear polarization to circular polarization , and , importantly , vice versa , is obtained using shapeanisotropic self - assembled quantum dots , which , having the advantage of extremely small size , may be readily incorporated into photonic crystals and / or other optical components . such devices also have the advantage of working in the absence of an applied magnetic field . such devices also , when a voltage bias is applied , can be used to manipulate electron spin by manipulating light polarization in the same circuit , and vice versa . this permits a high degree of control for either or both of these in spintronics and / or optical devices , the biased quantum dot being used as a nanometer scale electro - optic modulator . components utilizing the method and / or devices may be used as part of highly compact optical computing networks and / or spintronics systems for e . g ., information processing , quantum computation , holography , and data recording .

Description:
quantum dot polarization conversion through entanglement of linearly and circularly polarized photons the standard device for optical polarization conversion is the quarter - wave plate , where incoming linearly polarized light is transformed into circularly polarized light at the exit . an assortment of such and similar devices is present in any setup for optical information processing . also for quantum computation , holography and optical recording , polarization converters are of utmost importance . the general tendency towards miniaturization and high - density integration of opto - electronic circuits has stimulated much effort in this field . all - optical nanostructure integrated circuits based on photonic crystals [ 1 ] have been proposed [ 2 ] and demonstrated [ 3 ]. such miniaturized systems require novel approaches for the realization of polarization conversion devices which , in order to achieve optimum integration , must be of nanometer size and readily built - in into the optical system . here we report on efficient conversion of optical polarization using self assembled quantum dots ( qds ), which are a few tens of nanometer in size and can be easily integrated in photonic crystals [ 4 , 5 ]. the conversion occurs due to the entanglement of linearly and circularly polarized states resulting from the natural anisotropic shape of the semiconductor qds [ 6 , 7 , 8 ]. moreover , the anisotropic exchange splitting depends on the number of electrons in a qd [ 9 ], and we propose a scheme where the biased qd acts as a nm - scale electro - optic modulator , allowing coherent operations on the polarization of the photons . quantum dots ( qds ) are essentially zero - dimensional semiconductors resulting in a line spectrum in the optical frequency range , and are therefore referred to as man - made atoms . as can clearly be seen from the afm image ( fig1 a ) the self - assembled cdse / znse qds that we use in this study ( for fabrication details see the methods section ) tend to be elongated along a particular crystallographic axis . the symmetry of the dot ensemble is reduced to c 2v , as compared with the full t d symmetry of the zinc blende bulk lattice . this implies that such dots exhibit an extreme spatial anisotropy . the interaction between light and a qd dot results in the formation of excitons , where the polarization of the light is linked to the spin states of the exciton . the exciton itself consists of an electron and a hole bound by the coulomb potential . the confinement of the exciton in the small volume of the qd leads to an enhancement of the electron - hole exchange interaction . due to the low symmetry of our qds this results in an anisotropic exchange splitting [ 10 ], . typically , for cdse / znse qds , ˜ 0 . 1 mev . this splitting is directly observed in the photoluminescence ( pl ) spectrum of a single qd through the formation of line doublets [ 7 , 9 ]. when an ensemble of qds is probed , the exchange splitting is buried in the much larger (˜ 30 mev ) inhomogeneous broadening of the pl band ( fig1 b ). however , for non - resonant excitation , in thermal equilibrium , the anisotropic exchange splitting manifests itself as an inbuilt linear polarization . fig2 a shows the degree of linear polarization measured in a fixed coordinate basis while the sample is rotated by an angle α . the polarization oscillates as cos ( 2α ), just as would be observed for a linear polarizer . as can clearly be seen from the polar plot in the inset of fig2 a , the polarization axis is linked to the [ 110 ] crystallographic direction , and it does not depend on ( the handedness of ) the polarization of the exciting light . this behavior is what one intuitively expects from the shape of the qds found in fig1 a . rather more counter - intuitive results are obtained under quasi - resonant excitation . the pl spectrum of the qds is now dominated by a narrow peak that we attribute as a phonon replica of the laser line ( fig1 b ). it appears due to fast excitonic recombination in combination with the emission of an lo - phonon . under these conditions the polarization axis is no longer fixed to the [ 110 ] crystalline direction . as shown in fig2 b , the angle dependence of the linear polarization now behaves as cos ( 2α ± φ 0 ), where the plus ( minus ) sign depends on the handedness of the circularly polarized excitation light . this behavior is ever so more clearly apparent from the polar plot in the inset of fig2 b . the polarization axis is rotated away from [ 110 ] by an angle φ 0 ≈ 40 °, clockwise towards the [ 100 ] direction for σ + , and counter - clockwise towards the [ 010 ] direction for σ − polarization of the incoming light . such a behavior implies , indeed , circular - to - linear polarization conversion . in order to estimate conversion efficiency under ca circular - polarized excitation , denoted with p c =± 1 , we describe the total polarization of the emitted light by a vector [ ρ l ′ , ρ l , ρ c ] inside the poincaré sphere . here , ρ l ′ is the linear polarization along [ 110 ], ρ l is the linear polarization along [ 100 ], and ρ c is the circular polarization . these stokes coordinates satisfy √{ square root over ( ρ l ′ 2 + ρ l 2 + ρ c 2 )}≦ 1 . under efficient conversion we understand the condition | ρ l |& gt ;| ρ l ′ | and | ρ l |& gt ;| ρ c |. according to fig2 b the maximum amplitude of the linear polarization is ρ 0 = 2 . 7 %, so we have ( see also the methods section ) ρ l = ρ 0 sin ( 2φ 0 )≈ 2 . 6 % and ρ l ′ = ρ 0 cos ( 2φ 0 )≈ 0 . 4 %. we also have measured the optical orientation [ 11 ], i . e . the degree of circular polarization of the emitted light under circularly polarized excitation and obtained ρ c ≈ 1 %. for the experimental values the above condition is obviously fulfilled . we should note that the qd converter demonstrated here is far from ideal . for a high quality quarter - wave plate one typically has ρ l & gt ; 99 %. this imperfection is compensated by the small size of the qds , only a few tens of nanometers , i . e ., much smaller than the operating wavelength ( 460 nm ). furthermore , the dots can easily be integrated in semiconductor circuits . an important advantage of the qd converter is the possibility of control by applying a bias voltage , as discussed below . moreover , one can show theoretically that for optimized qd dimensions a value ρ l ≈ 50 % can be achieved . polarization conversion in low dimensional systems has been predicted by ivchenko et . al . [ 12 ] in the presence of a preferential direction for the excitonic states in qds , the circularly and linearly polarized contributions to the emission are entangled . obviously , an external magnetic field can induce this preferential direction . meanwhile , magnetic field - induced polarization conversion has been demonstrated experimentally in superlattices [ 13 ]. however , involving the anisotropic exchange interaction to define the preferential direction induces entanglement of the circular and the [ 100 ] linear polarizations even in zero magnetic field . ivchenko et al -&# 39 ; s predictions [ 12 ] were furthermore partly confirmed in quantum beat experiments [ 14 ] where precession of the linear polarization component ( excited with linearly polarized light ) around the preferential direction at larmor frequency ω was observed . within the pseudospin formalism [ 13 ], the time evolution after circularly polarized excitation p c at t = 0 can be expressed as ρ c ( t )= p c cos ( ωt ) exp (− t / τ s ) and ρ l ( t )= p c sin ( ωt ) exp (− t / τ s ). the circular and linear polarizations thus oscillate in antiphase , decaying with pseudospin relaxation time τ s to zero . in qds , the spin relaxation time of a single hole was found to be about 10 ns [ 15 ], the spin relaxation time of a single electron is even longer , in a millisecond range [ 16 ]. therefore , τ s for an exciton is sufficiently long to have τ s & gt ;& gt ; t r , where t r ˜ 100 ps [ 17 ] is the radiative recombination time . in steady - state , i . e . under continuous wave ( cw ) excitation , the degree of polarization is obtained after averaging the polarization evolution with the distribution t r − 1 exp (− t / t r ) of the emission probability [ 11 ], yielding here , t − 1 = t r − 1 + τ s − 1 and we assume that t / t r ≈ 1 ( slow spin relaxation ). we note that the qd ensemble is inhomogeneous , i . e ., the anisotropic exchange splitting fluctuates from dot to dot . this can be taken into account by using average values | ω |≠√{ square root over ( ω 2 )} in eqs . ( 1 ). eqs . ( 1 ) are simple but essential for the qd conversion mechanism . the second identity in eqs . ( 1 ) is very similar to the hanle effect , with the zeeman splitting induced by a magnetic field replaced by the zero - field anisotropic exchange splitting . in quantum dots the anisotropic exchange splitting is an order of magnitude larger than in superlattices . as a result the polarization conversion under cw excitation is significant . the conversation factor is k = ρ l / ρ c = ω t . in qds ωt is typically in the range of ωt ˜ 1 - 100 , which is in good agreement with the present experimental data , as we found k ≈ 3 . it also follows from equations ( 1 ) that for ωt = 1 the polarization can reach ρ l = ρ c = 50 %. the most intriguing effect is counter - conversion , i . e ., conversion from linear to circular polarization , which should occur due to time reversal symmetry . indeed we observed this effect , as shown in fig2 c . upon linear polarized excitation along [ 010 ], σ + polarized emission appears . the effect changes sign to σ − when excitation occurs along [ 100 ]. no conversion is observed when the linear polarizer at the excitation was oriented along [ 110 ] or perpendicular directions . this behavior is in a good qualitative agreement with theory , and obeys similar equations as eqs . ( 1 ) upon interchange of the indices l c and reversing the sign of ω . the anisotropic exchange splitting is modified drastically in a negatively charged qd , containing a single extra electron . with a photo - created electron the extra electron forms the energetically favorable singlet state with zero total electron spin . since the electron - hole exchange interaction is proportional to the spins [ 10 ] of electrons and holes , the anisotropic exchange splitting in a charged qd equals [ 9 ] exactly zero ( = 0 ). by applying a bias voltage , additional electrons can be pushed into or out of the qds . this gives extra functionality to the qd converter , and may provide a flexible approach for spin - based devices . due to the optical selection rules [ 11 ], the spin of a photo - excited electron in the conduction band is proportional to the photon &# 39 ; s circular polarization . thus , instead of directly manipulating electron spin one can alternatively control the light polarization within the same circuit . a possible layout of such a device is presented in fig3 . the essential part is a double qd layer with anisotropic exchange splittings of opposite signs . ( the actual fabrication of such structures will evidently demand further technological effort .) physically this means that qds are elongated along the [ 110 ] direction in the right layer resulting in a positive ω r & gt ; 0 , while in the qds the left layer are elongated in perpendicular direction , corresponding to a negative ω l & lt ; 0 . in general , as can also be seen from eqs . ( 1 ), the conversion depends on the sign of ω and no conversion occurs for ω = 0 . at positive bias , electrons , provided through the ohmic contacts , are mostly trapped at qds in the left layer , resulting in zero anisotropic exchange splitting ω l = 0 ( see fig3 a ). the right qd layer with ω r & gt ; 0 converts linear polarized light along [ 010 ], which we denote by p l =− 1 , into σ + circularly polarized light ( ρ c & gt ; 0 ). when negative bias is applied , the electrons are transferred into the right qd layer , turning off the conversion there ( ω r = 0 , see fig3 b ), and only the left qd layer , where now ω l & lt ; 0 , is optically active . thus , the conversion changes sign . such an electrical control of circular polarization ( in absence of any magnetic field ) is of course already known as electro - optic modulator . however , the electrooptic crystals used in such devices are bulky . the qd converter is a nm - scale device , and it could play a similar role in optical computing as the datta - das spin transistor [ 18 ] in spin - electronics . in summary , we have demonstrated efficient circular - to - linear and linear - to - circular light polarization conversion by quantum dots . the conversion occurs in zero magnetic field and is induced by anisotropic exchange splitting . a biased implementation of such qd converters could yield a nm - scale electro - optic modulator . our findings may have obvious practical applications in information processing . the cdse / znse qds used in our experiments are grown by conventional molecular beam epitaxy . one monolayer ( 0 . 3 nm ) of cdse is deposited [ 19 ] atop a 50 nm - thick znse buffer layer . a growth interrupt of 10 seconds prior to capping by 25 nm znse results in the formation of cdse qds by self assembly . typically , these dots are 1 nm high and sub - 10 nm in lateral dimensions . in order to image the qds using atomic force microscopy ( afm ), also an uncapped sample has been grown . the afm image of this sample , shown in fig1 a , shows distinct islands with clearly discernible shape anisotropy . the dots are preferentially elongated along the [ 110 ] direction , according to optical characterization . for optical excitation we use a stilbene - 3 dye - laser , pumped by the ultra - violet lines of an ar - ion laser . in this setup the excitation energy can be varied and carefully tuned to cdse qd resonant conditions . the polarization is detected at the phonon replica , spectrally separating the excitation and emission . for nonresonant excitation the laser energy is tuned to 2 . 83 ev , exceeding the band gap of the znse barrier . the sample is mounted on a rotating holder . it &# 39 ; s orientation is controlled using a step motor to an accuracy better than 1 °. the angle scans of the polarization are carried out using fixed analyzers ( high quality glan - thompson prisms ). in order to detect the polarization degree to an accuracy of ± 0 . 1 % we use a conventional optical setup consisting of a photo - elastic modulator operating at frequency f = 50 khz and a two - channel photon counter . the circular polarization ρ c is detected at f and the linear polarizations ρ l ′ , ρ l are detected at the double frequency 2f . the linear polarizations ρ l ′ and ρ l are defined as ρ l ′ =( i 110 − i 1 1 0 )/( i 110 + i 1 1 0 ) and ρ l =( i 100 − i 010 )/( i 100 + i 010 ), respectively . here i xyz is the intensity of the light polarized along the [ xyz ] axis of the crystal . when the sample is rotated over an angle α , both components transform as ρ l ′ cos ( 2α )− ρ l sin ( 2α ), with amplitude is ρ 0 =√{ square root over ( ρ l ′ 2 + ρ l 2 )}. for noise reduction all optical experiments were performed at a temperature of 1 . 6 k . no magnetic fields were applied . the method for polarization conversion described above may be used in a wide manner of electronic devices with significant advantages over extant products . some of these applications , depending on the ease of room temperature operation , and price , may well be able to address substantial , high volume applications . some examples of classes of application include : the technology could operate in exactly the same way as an liquid crystal display ( lcd ) and replicate any current application ( in displays , and other optical elements such as scanners , shutters , sensors and switches ) but have the advantage of being much faster — and hence create new applications as well ; 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