Enhancement of quantum cascade laser intersubband transitions via coupling to resonant discrete photonic modes of subwavelength gratings.

We present an optical spectroscopic study of InGaAs/AlInAs active region of quantum cascade lasers grown by low pressure metal organic vapor phase epitaxy combined with subwavelength gratings fabricated by reactive ion etching. Fourier-transformed photoluminescence measurements were used to compare the emission properties of structures before and after processing the gratings. Our results demonstrate a significant increase of the photoluminescence intensity related to intersubband transitions in the mid-infrared, which is attributed to coupling with the grating modes via so called photonic Fano resonances. Our findings demonstrate a promising method for enhancing the emission in optoelectronic devices operating in a broad range of application-relevant infrared.

Optical Quality of InAs/InP Quantum Dots on Distributed Bragg Reflector Emitting at 3rd Telecom Window Grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy.

We present an experimental study on the optical quality of InAs/InP quantum dots (QDs). Investigated structures have application relevance due to emission in the 3rd telecommunication window. The nanostructures are grown by ripening-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. This leads to their unique properties, i.e., low spatial density and in-plane shape symmetry. These are advantageous for non-classical light generation for quantum technologies applications. As a measure of the internal quantum efficiency, the discrepancy between calculated and experimentally determined photon extraction efficiency is used. The investigated nanostructures exhibit close to ideal emission efficiency proving their high structural quality. The thermal stability of emission is investigated by means of microphotoluminescence. This allows to determine the maximal operation temperature of the device and reveal the main emission quenching channels. Emission quenching is predominantly caused by the transition of holes and electrons to higher QD's levels. Additionally, these carriers could further leave the confinement potential via the dense ladder of QD states. Single QD emission is observed up to temperatures of about 100 K, comparable to the best results obtained for epitaxial QDs in this spectral range. The fundamental limit for the emission rate is the excitation radiative lifetime, which spreads from below 0.5 to almost 1.9 ns (GHz operation) without any clear spectral dispersion. Furthermore, carrier dynamics is also determined using time-correlated single-photon counting.

Method for direct coupling of a semiconductor quantum dot to an optical fiber for single-photon source applications.

We present an effective method for direct fiber coupling of a quantum dot (QD) that is deterministically incorporated into a cylindrical mesa. For precise positioning of the fiber with respect to the QD-mesa, we use a scanning procedure relying on interference of light reflected back from the fiber end-face and the top surface of the mesa, applicable for both single-mode and multi-mode fibers. The central part of the fiber end-face is etched to control the required distance between the top surface of the mesa and the fiber core. Emission around 1260 nm from a fiber-coupled InGaAs/GaAs QD is demonstrated and its stability is proven over multiple cooling cycles. Moreover, a single photon character of emission from such system for a line emitting above 1200 nm is proven experimentally by photon autocorrelation measurements with an obtained value of the second order correlation function at zero time-delay well below 0.5.