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Coherent control of a high-orbital hole in a semiconductor quantum dot

Nature Nanotechnology volume 18, pages 1139–1146 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Coherently driven semiconductor quantum dots are one of the most promising platforms for non-classical light sources and quantum logic gates which form the foundation of photonic quantum technologies. However, to date, coherent manipulation of single charge carriers in quantum dots is limited mainly to their lowest orbital states. Ultrafast coherent control of high-orbital states is obstructed by the demand for tunable terahertz pulses. To break this constraint, we demonstrate an all-optical method to control high-orbital states of a hole via a stimulated Auger process. The coherent nature of the Auger process is proved by Rabi oscillation and Ramsey interference. Harnessing this coherence further enables the investigation of the single-hole relaxation mechanism. A hole relaxation time of 161 ps is observed and attributed to the phonon bottleneck effect. Our work opens new possibilities for understanding the fundamental properties of high-orbital states in quantum emitters and for developing new types of orbital-based quantum photonic devices.

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Fig. 1: Radiative Auger emission from a positively charged QD.
Fig. 2: Rabi oscillation of a high-orbital hole.
Fig. 3: Ramsey interference.
Fig. 4: Direct measurement of single-hole relaxation dynamics.
Fig. 5: Energy separation dependence of hole-relaxation time.

Data availability

The raw data that support the findings of this study are available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7947362 and from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Code availability

The codes that have been used for this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank N. Viteritti for electrical contact preparation of the sample and D. E. Reiter for fruitful discussions. F.L., D.-W.W. and W.C. acknowledge support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U21A6006, 62075194, 61975177, U20A20164, 11934011, 62122067) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2021QNA5006). H.-G.B., A.D.W. and A.L. acknowledge support from the BMBF-QR.X Project 16KISQ009 and the DFH/UFA, Project CDFA-05-06.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Interdisciplinary Center for Quantum Information, State Key Laboratory of Extreme Photonics and Instrumentation, College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Jun-Yong Yan, Chen Chen, Xiao-Dong Zhang, Yu-Tong Wang, Huali Duan, Wenchao Chen, Xing Lin, Chao-Yuan Jin & Feng Liu

  2. Lehrstuhl für Angewandte Festkörperphysik, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany

    Hans-Georg Babin, Andreas D. Wieck & Arne Ludwig

  3. School of Precision Instrument and Optoelectronic Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China

    Yun Meng & Xiaolong Hu

  4. Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Information Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, Tianjin, China

    Yun Meng & Xiaolong Hu

  5. ZJU-UIUC Institute, International Campus, Zhejiang University, Haining, China

    Huali Duan & Wenchao Chen

  6. College of Optical Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Wei Fang

  7. SUPA, Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK

    Moritz Cygorek

  8. Zhejiang Province Key Laboratory of Quantum Technology and Device, School of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Da-Wei Wang

  9. International Joint Innovation Center, Zhejiang University, Haining, China

    Chao-Yuan Jin & Feng Liu

  10. Center for Information Technology Application Innovation, Shaoxing Institute, Zhejiang University, Shaoxing, China

    Chao-Yuan Jin

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  1. Jun-Yong Yan
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Contributions

F.L. and J.-Y.Y. conceived the project. H.-G.B., A.D.W. and A.L. grew the wafer and fabricated the sample. Y.-T.W., H.D. and W.C. performed optical and electronic transport simulations for the sample. J.-Y.Y., C.C., X.-D.Z. and Y.M. carried out the experiments. J.-Y.Y., M.C. and F.L. analysed the data. J.-Y.Y. and D.-W.W. performed the quantum dynamics simulation. X.H., W.F., X.L., D.-W.W., C.-Y.J. and F.L. provided supervision and expertise. J.-Y.Y. and F.L. wrote the manuscript with comments and inputs from all the authors.

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Correspondence to Feng Liu.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Schematic of the experimental set-up.

A single QD device is kept in a cryostat at 3.6 K and is excited under pulsed resonant excitation. A Ti-sapphire laser is used to generate 140 femtosecond optical pulses with an 80 MHz repetition rate. The femtosecond pulses are then sent into two folded pulse shapers63 to pick out two picosecond pulses with time delay controlled by delayline 1. Each pulse is divided into two arms and another controlled delay is introduced by delayline 2 and 3. Finally, the four pulses are recombined and focused on the sample by an NA=0.81 objective lens. A pair of polarizers working at a cross-polarization configuration is used to filter out the resonant excitation laser62. The experimental data shown in the main text are acquired with the pulse sequences shown in the lower right corner.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary sections I–VIII and Figs. 1–14.

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Yan, JY., Chen, C., Zhang, XD. et al. Coherent control of a high-orbital hole in a semiconductor quantum dot. Nat. Nanotechnol. 18, 1139–1146 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-023-01442-y

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