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Coherent coupling between distant excitons revealed by two-dimensional nonlinear hyperspectral imaging

Nature Photonics volume 5, pages 57–63 (2011)Cite this article

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A Corrigendum to this article was published on 01 February 2011

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Abstract

Coherent coupling between distant two-level systems is a fundamental process in several physical contexts, from natural photosynthesis to quantum-information processing, where it enables two-qubit operations. For quantum information, qubits based on electronic degrees of freedom in a solid-state matrix are sensible candidates for scalable, integrated implementations. Clarifying the mechanisms underlying coherent coupling in solids is therefore an essential step in the development of such technology. Here, we demonstrate the existence of a long-range coherent coupling mechanism between individual localized excitons in a 5 nm GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well, introducing the novel tool of two-dimensional nonlinear coherent hyperspectral imaging. The coupling is shown to arise due to a biexcitonic renormalization, rather than a transition dipole (Förster) interaction. The long-range nature of the coupling is attributed to the existence of spatially extended exciton states up to the micrometre range, which are admixed in the biexciton state, as revealed in nonlinear imaging.

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Figure 1: Hyperspectral spatial imaging of FWM from individual excitons localized in monolayer islands of a 5 nm GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well.
Figure 2: Coherent coupling features observed in two-dimensional FWM at the region with low exciton density.
Figure 3: Coherent coupling features observed in two-dimensional FWM in the region with high exciton density.
Figure 4: Simulations of coupling features observable in two-dimensional FWM.
Figure 5: Coupling strength as a function of inter-exciton distance.

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Change history

  • 07 January 2011

    In the version of this Article originally published, the left-hand dash-dot line shown in Fig. 2b was incorrectly labelled as "X states", when it should have read "XX states". This error has been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge support by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) (contract no. EP/D025303/1), and the European Commission under a Marie Curie Fellowship (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-2-1-IEF, ‘CUSMEQ’ contract no. 219762).

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Author notes

  1. J. Kasprzak & B. Patton

    Present address: Present address: Néel Institute, CNRS/UJF, 25 rue des Martyrs, 38042 Grenoble, France (J.K.), Centre for Quantum Photonics, H. H. Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TL, UK (B.P),

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, The Parade, CF24 3AA, Cardiff, UK

    J. Kasprzak, B. Patton & W. Langbein

  2. Institute of Theoretical Physics, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne EPFL, Lausanne, CH-1015, Switzerland

    V. Savona

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Contributions

The experiments were designed by W.L., set up by W.L. and B.P., and performed by W.L. and J.K. Data were analysed by J.K. and W.L. Analysis tools were provided by W.L. and B.P. Theoretical modelling and interpretation were performed by W.L. and V.S.

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Correspondence to J. Kasprzak or W. Langbein.

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Kasprzak, J., Patton, B., Savona, V. et al. Coherent coupling between distant excitons revealed by two-dimensional nonlinear hyperspectral imaging. Nature Photon 5, 57–63 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2010.284

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