Physics Colloquium: "Generation of Pure Quantum Light in the Solid-State"

The ability to generate light in pure quantum states is central to the development of quantum-enhanced technologies. Recently, artificial atoms in the form of semiconductor quantum dots have emerged as an excellent platform for quantum light generation [1]. By placing the quantum dot in an optical microcavity, pure dephasing phenomena are strongly suppressed and single photon wavepackets with very high quantum purity in the frequency domain are generated [2]. This is obtained at high efficiency, which opens new possibilities for optical quantum protocols such as the resource efficient generation of linear cluster states [3].

We recently benchmarked our technology to study the performance reproducibility [4] and explored new schemes to push further the source efficiency [5]. Interestingly, this last study shows that we can turn the emitter imperfections and its coupling the solid-state environment into resources.

Finally, this excellent artificial atom-photon interface allows us to investigate fundamental quantum optics. We recently demonstrated that the coherence imprinted at the atomic level can be transferred to the radiated field through spontaneous emission. We observe for the first time the direct generation of light pulses in a pure quantum superposition of vacuum and one-photon with a full control of their relative populations and phase [6].

[1] P Senellart, G Solomon, A White, Nature Nanotechnology 12 (11), (2017)

[2] N. Somaschi, et al. Nature Photonics, 10, 340 (2016)

[3] D. Istrati et al. arXiv:1912.04375 (Nature Communications in Press)

[4] H. Ollivier et al, ACS Photonics 7, 1050 (2020)

[5] S. Thomas et al. arXiv:2007.04330

[6] J. C. Loredo, C. Anton, et. al, Nature Photonics 13, 803 (2019)

 Short bio :

Pascale Senellart is a senior CNRS researcher at the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology – CNRS – University Paris Saclay. She has co-authored 140 papers and given more than 120 invited international talks. She received the CNRS silver medal in 2014 and was elected OSA Fellow in 2018. In 2017, she cofounded Quandela, a spin-off company specialized in single photon sources.