Abstract
The study of the light–matter interaction at the quantum scale has been enabled by the cavity quantum electrodynamics (CQED) architecture1, in which a quantum two-level system strongly couples to a single cavity mode. Originally implemented with atoms in optical cavities2,3, CQED effects are now also observed with artificial atoms in solid-state environments4,5,6. Such realizations of these systems exhibit fast dynamics, making them attractive candidates for devices including modulators and sources in high-throughput communications. However, these systems possess large photon out-coupling rates that obscure any quantum behaviour at large excitation powers. Here, we have used a self-homodyning7 interferometric technique that fully employs the complex mode structure of our nanofabricated cavity8,9,10 to observe a quantum phenomenon known as the dynamic Mollow triplet11. We expect this interference to facilitate the development of arbitrary on-chip quantum state generators, thereby strongly influencing quantum lithography, metrology and imaging.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Haroche, S. & Kleppner, D. Cavity quantum electrodynamics. Phys. Today 42, 24 (January, 1989).
Nußmann, S. et al. Vacuum-stimulated cooling of single atoms in three dimensions. Nature Phys. 1, 122–125 (2005).
Birnbaum, K. M. et al. Photon blockade in an optical cavity with one trapped atom. Nature 436, 87–90 (2005).
Michler, P. et al. A quantum dot single-photon turnstile device. Science 290, 2282–2285 (2000).
Santori, C., Fattal, D., Vucković, J., Solomon, G. S. & Yamamoto, Y. Indistinguishable photons from a single-photon device. Nature 419, 594–597 (2002).
Faraon, A. et al. Coherent generation of non-classical light on a chip via photon-induced tunnelling and blockade. Nature Phys. 4, 859–863 (2008).
Carmichael, H. J. Statistical Methods in Quantum Optics (Springer, 2008).
Vasco, J. P., Vinck-Posada, H., Valentim, P. T. & Guimãraes, P. S. S. Modeling of Fano resonances in the reflectivity of photonic crystal cavities with finite spot size excitation. Opt. Express 21, 31336–31346 (2013).
Galli, M. et al. Light scattering and Fano resonances in high-Q photonic crystal nanocavities. Appl. Phys. Lett. 94, 071101 (2009).
Valentim, P. T. et al. Asymmetry tuning of Fano resonances in GaAs photonic crystal cavities. Appl. Phys. Lett. 102, 111112 (2013).
Moelbjerg, A., Kaer, P., Lorke, M. & Mørk, J. Resonance fluorescence from semiconductor quantum dots: beyond the Mollow triplet. Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 017401 (2012).
Kimble, H. J., Dagenais, M. & Mandel, L. Photon antibunching in resonance fluorescence. Phys. Rev. Lett. 39, 691–695 (1977).
Hong, C. K., Ou, Z. Y. & Mandel, L. Measurement of subpicosecond time intervals between two photons by interference. Phys. Rev. Lett. 59, 2044–2046 (1987).
Mollow, B. R. Power spectrum of light scattered by two-level systems. Phys. Rev. 188, 1969–1975 (1969).
Flagg, E. B. et al. Resonantly driven coherent oscillations in a solid-state quantum emitter. Nature Phys. 5, 203–207 (2009).
Yoshie, T. et al. Vacuum Rabi splitting with a single quantum dot in a photonic crystal nanocavity. Nature 432, 200–203 (2004).
Reithmaier, J. P. et al. Strong coupling in a single quantum dot–semiconductor microcavity system. Nature 432, 197–200 (2004).
Englund, D. et al. Controlling cavity reflectivity with a single quantum dot. Nature 450, 857–861 (2007).
Laussy, F. P., del Valle, E., Schrapp, M., Laucht, A. & Finley, J. J. Climbing the Jaynes–Cummings ladder by photon counting. J. Nanophoton. 6, 061803 (2012).
Fano, U. Effects of configuration interaction on intensities and phase shifts. Phys. Rev. 124, 1866–1878 (1961).
Alsing, P., Guo, D. & Carmichael, H. J. Dynamic stark effect for the Jaynes-Cummings system. Phys. Rev. A 45, 5135–5143 (1992).
Fushman, I. et al. Controlled phase shifts with a single quantum dot. Science 320, 769–772 (2008).
Wilkens, M. & Rzaewski, K. Resonance fluorescence of an arbitrarily driven two-level atom. Phys. Rev. A 40, 3164–3178 (1989).
Müller, K. et al. Ultrafast polariton–phonon dynamics of strongly coupled quantum dot–nanocavity systems. Phys. Rev. X 5, 031006 (2015).
Roy, C. & Hughes, S. Polaron master equation theory of the quantum-dot Mollow triplet in a semiconductor cavity–QED system. Phys. Rev. B 85, 115309 (2012).
Cohen-Tannoudji, C. Atom–Photon Interactions (Wiley, 2004).
López Carreño, J. C., Sánchez Muñoz, C., Sanvitto, D., del Valle, E. & Laussy, F. P. Exciting polaritons with quantum light. Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 196402 (2015).
Sánchez Muñoz, C. et al. Emitters of N-photon bundles. Nature Photon. 8, 550–555 (2014).
Yu, Y. et al. Fano resonance control in a photonic crystal structure and its application to ultrafast switching. Appl. Phys. Lett. 105, 061117 (2014).
Johansson, J., Nation, P. & Nori, F. Qutip: an open-source python framework for the dynamics of open quantum systems. Comput. Phys. Commun. 183, 1760–1772 (2012).
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge financial support from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the MURI Center for Multifunctional Light–Matter Interfaces based on Atoms and Solids, and support from the Army Research Office (grant no. W911NF1310309). K.A.F. acknowledges support from the Lu Stanford Graduate Fellowship and the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship. K.M. acknowledges support from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. A.Y.P. acknowledges support from the Bechtolsheim Stanford Graduate Fellowship. Y.A.K. acknowledges support from the Stanford Graduate Fellowship and the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship. K.G.L. acknowledges support from the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
K.A.F. and K.M. conceived and performed the experiments. K.A.F. performed the theoretical work and modelling. A.R. fabricated the device. T.S. performed MBE growth of the QD structure. A.P., Y.A.K., C.D. and K.G.L. provided expertise. J.V. supervised the project. All authors participated in the discussion and understanding of the results.
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Supplementary information
Supplementary information
Supplementary information (PDF 517 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fischer, K., Müller, K., Rundquist, A. et al. Self-homodyne measurement of a dynamic Mollow triplet in the solid state. Nature Photon 10, 163–166 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2015.276
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2015.276
This article is cited by
-
Dynamic resonance fluorescence in solid-state cavity quantum electrodynamics
Nature Photonics (2024)
-
Complete Coherent Control of a Quantum Dot Strongly Coupled to a Nanocavity
Scientific Reports (2016)
