Noise-free Excitation of Semiconductor Quantum Dots

Icarus Quantum Inc. is developing quantum dot (QD) technologies for on-demand quantum light generation. Icarus is a spinout company from the Quantum Nanophotonics Group of the Physical Measurement Laboratory in NIST Boulder. We are addressing one of the key challenges of the ongoing project at NIST titled “Hybrid Quantum Optomechanical Systems with Solid-State Artificial Atoms.” In this project, QDs are used as mediators between microwave and optical photons, as well as on-demand sources of single photons for quantum networking applications. In this Phase I SBIR, Icarus will develop a method for efficient and noise-free excitation of QDs by exciting them with beams propagating in the horizontal plane and collecting the photons emitted from the QD vertically. This method results in isolating the excitation beam from the emitted photons. In other solutions, the excitation pump and emitted photons propagate along the same path, requiring precise polarization or frequency filtering to reject the pump photons, adding complications to the device and reduce the collection efficiency. Our solution is a critical step towards a compact and turnkey on-demand single and entangled photon source, enabling repeater-based quantum networking and distributed quantum computing.