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Single-photon emission at a rate of 143 MHz from a deterministic quantum-dot microlens triggered by a mode-locked vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser

Schlehahn, Alexander; Gaafar, M.; Vaupel, M.; Gschrey, Manuel; Schnauber, Peter; Schulze, Jan-Hindrik; Rodt, Sven; Strittmatter, André; Stolz, W.; Rahimi-Iman, A.; Heindel, Tobias; Koch, M.; Reitzenstein, Stephan

We report on the realization of a quantum dot (QD) based single-photon source with a record-high single-photon emission rate. The quantum light source consists of an InGaAs QD which is deterministically integrated within a monolithic microlens with a distributed Bragg reflector as back-side mirror, which is triggered using the frequency-doubled emission of a mode-locked vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser (ML-VECSEL). The utilized compact and stable laser system allows us to excite the single-QD microlens at a wavelength of 508 nm with a pulse repetition rate close to 500 MHz at a pulse width of 4.2 ps. Probing the photon statistics of the emission from a single QD state at saturation, we demonstrate single-photon emission of the QD-microlens chip with g(2)(0) < 0.03 at a record-high single-photon flux of (143 ± 16) MHz collected by the first lens of the detection system. Our approach is fully compatible with resonant excitation schemes using wavelength tunable ML-VECSELs, which will optimize the quantum optical properties of the single-photon emission in terms of photon indistinguishability.
Published in: Applied Physics Letters, 10.1063/1.4927429, American Institute of Physics (AIP)
  • This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and AIP Publishing. This article appeared in Appl. Phys. Lett. 107, 041105 (2015) and may be found at https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4927429.