Raphael Joos

Bringing quantum light sources into real‐world telecommunication networks requires moving beyond the laboratory and developing sources that operate at the telecom C‐band. Epitaxial quantum dots (QDs) provide deterministic sources of quantum light at these wavelengths. Here, we demonstrate an important step toward quantum communication networks: a state‐of‐the‐art semiconductor QD source, exhibiting a record coincidence rate for entangled‐photon emission in the telecom C‐band, integrated into an optimised rack‐based setup exhibiting remote controle. This setup includes a tunable pulsed laser for QD excitation, enabling operation from quasi‐resonant to resonant two‐photon excitation, all‐optical excitation suppression, and QD signal coupling into single‐mode fibres. Overall, the setup achieves more than 65% transmission for both exciton and biexciton photons. To demonstrate the usability of our stand‐alone source, we transmit single photons through a deployed 36 km‐long fibre link and verify that their single‐photon purity is preserved. Moreover, based on the measured entangled‐photon pair rate, we estimate that the source could enable entangled QKD protocols with a projected secret key rate 3.4 cps after 150 km of optical fibres. These results demonstrate the potential of quantum‐dot‐based telecom light sources for integration into existing fibre infrastructures, paving the way toward the realisation of a quantum internet.

The ability to reliably inscribe information on single photons is a crucial requirement for quantum applications such as quantum communication and measurement-based photonic quantum computation. Experimental implementations generally employ phase modulators in single-pass or Mach-Zehnder-interferometer configurations to encode information on photonic qubits. However, these approaches are intrinsically sensitive to environmental influences, which limits the achievable quantum error rates in practice, posing a major bottleneck in the transition of quantum applications with deterministic sources from the laboratory to the field. Inspired by the adaptation of Sagnac interferometer encoders for laser-based applications, we report a demonstration of a polarization encoder for single-photon qubits based on a free-space Sagnac interferometer. The device showcases inherent phase stability and overcomes previous error-rate limitations: Telecom-wavelength photons emitted by a quantum dot are modulated at a rate of 152 MHz and with a quantum bit error rate of 0.69 ± 0.02 % , marking the lowest value reported to date for MHz-rate information encoding on single photons by a factor of > 3 . This combination of low error rate, high modulation speed, stability, and operation with telecom-wavelength sub-Poissonian photons is an essential requirement for bringing quantum applications based on deterministic photon sources from the laboratory to the field and a significant step toward unlocking the full potential of a future quantum Internet.

Quantum emitters promise to emit exactly one photon when pumped by a laser pulse. However, even in ideal systems, re-excitation during the laser pulse duration causes the consecutive emission of two photons, thus limiting the single-photon purity. Although the probability and characteristics of re-excitation are largely determined by the excitation scheme, until now, only resonant driving has been studied. Here, we demonstrate qualitative differences for phonon-assisted excitation and resolve the distinct temporal and spectral profile of each of the photons. These uncover correlations between the emission time and wavelength, resulting in an asymmetric two-photon spectrum. On a fundamental level, we show that this spectrum provides direct access to the Rabi frequency of an incoherently driven quantum dot. On the application side, we leverage the asymmetry to selectively suppress multiphoton noise, ensuring high single-photon purity regardless of the laser pulse length and thus enhancing implementations across quantum cryptography and quantum computing.

Quantum key distribution (QKD) with deterministic single photon sources has been demonstrated over intercity fiber and free-space channels. The previous implementations relied mainly on polarization encoding schemes, which are susceptible to birefringence, polarization-mode dispersion and polarization-dependent loss in practical fiber networks. In contrast, time-bin encoding offers inherent robustness and has been widely adopted in mature QKD systems using weak coherent laser pulses. However, its feasibility in conjunction with a deterministic single-photon source has not yet been experimentally demonstrated. In this work, we construct a time-bin encoded QKD system employing a high-brightness quantum dot (QD) single-photon source operating at telecom wavelength. Our proof-of-concept experiment successfully demonstrates the possibility of secure key distribution over fiber link of 120 km, while maintaining extraordinary long-term stability over 6 h of continuous operation, that is highest secure key rate among the time-bin QKDs based on single-photon sources. This work provides the first experimental validation of integrating a QD single-photon source with time-bin encoding in a telecom-band QKD system. This development signifies a substantial advancement in the establishment of a robust and scalable QKD network based on solid-state single-photon technology.

A global quantum internet is based on scalable networks, which require reliable quantum hardware. Among them are quantum light sources providing deterministic, high-brightness, high-fidelity entangled photons and quantum memories with coherence times exceeding the millisecond range. Long-distance operation demands quantum light sources emitting at telecommunication wavelengths. A cornerstone for such networks is the demonstration of quantum teleportation. Here, we realize full-photonic quantum teleportation employing semiconductor quantum dots, which can fulfill all the aforementioned requirements. Two remote GaAs quantum dots, emitting in the near-infrared, are used: one as an entangled-photon pair source and the other as a single-photon source. During the experiment, the single photon is prepared in conjugate polarization states and interfaced with the biexciton emission of the entangled pair employing a polarization-selective Bell state measurement. This process teleports the respective polarization state onto the exciton emission of the entangled pair. The frequency mismatch between the triggered sources is erased using two polarization-preserving quantum frequency converters, enabling remote two-photon interference at telecommunication wavelengths, yielding a visibility of 30(1)%. A post-selected teleportation fidelity up to 0.721(33), significantly above the classical limit, demonstrates successful quantum teleportation between light from distinct sources. These results mark an important development for semiconductor-based quantum light sources.

Photonic cluster states are highly entangled states that allow for photonic quantum computing and memory-less quantum repeaters. Their generation has been recently demonstrated using semiconductor quantum dots emitting at the 900 nm wavelength range. However, a similar demonstration at the communication-optimal telecom range has remained elusive. A key ingredient that is still missing is an appropriate optical excitation method. A central requirement of such a method is to allow an arbitrary spin initialization of quantum-dot excitonic complexes. In this work, we report on developing such a method based on a quasiresonant p -shell excitation for an InAs/InGaAs quantum dot emitting at 1535 nm. We show qubit writing of a neutral exciton and spin-preserving excitation of a negative trion. Using the Larmor precession of the negative trion under an externally applied magnetic field, we determine the in-plane g factors of both the electron and the hole in the investigated quantum dot. In addition, we measure a lower bound on the hole coherence time, T 2 * > 6.4 ns , boosting its candidacy as a sound photon entangler for more advanced quantum photonic schemes.

Fiber-based distribution of triggered, entangled, single-photon pairs is a key requirement for the future development of terrestrial quantum networks. In this context, semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are promising candidates for deterministic sources of on-demand polarization-entangled photon pairs. So far, the best QD polarization-entangled-pair sources emit in the near-infrared wavelength regime, where the transmission distance in deployed fibers is limited. Here, to be compatible with existing fiber network infrastructures, bi-directional polarization-conserving quantum frequency conversion (QFC) is employed to convert the QD emission from 780 nm to telecom wavelengths. We show the preservation of polarization entanglement after QFC (fidelity to Bell state F_ϕ⁺,conv=0.972±0.003) of the biexciton transition. As a step toward real-world applicability, high entanglement fidelities (F_ϕ⁺,loop=0.945±0.005) after the propagation of one photon of the entangled pair along a 35.8 km field-installed standard single mode fiber link are reported. Furthermore, we successfully demonstrate a second polarization-conserving QFC step back to 780 nm preserving entanglement (F_ϕ⁺,back=0.903±0.005). This further prepares the way for interfacing quantum light to various quantum memories.

Long-range, terrestrial quantum networks require high-brightness single-photon sources emitting in the telecom C-band for maximum transmission rates. For solid-state quantum emitters, the underlying pumping process, i.e., coherent or incoherent excitation schemes, impacts several photon properties such as photon indistinguishability, single-photon purity, and photon number coherence. These properties play a major role in quantum communication applications, the latter in particular for quantum cryptography. Here, we present a versatile telecom C-band single-photon source that is operated coherently and incoherently using two complementary pumping schemes. The source is based on a quantum dot coupled to a circular Bragg grating cavity, whereas coherent (incoherent) operation is performed via the novel SUPER scheme (phonon-assisted excitation). In this way, high end-to-end-efficiencies (η_end) of 5.36% (6.09%) are achieved simultaneously with a small multiphoton contribution g⁽²⁾(0) of 0.076 ± 0.001 [g⁽²⁾(0) of 0.069 ± 0.001] for coherent (incoherent) operation.

Quantum key distribution (QKD) enables the transmission of information that is secure against general attacks by eavesdroppers. The use of on-demand quantum light sources in QKD protocols is expected to help improve security and maximum tolerable loss. Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are a promising building block for quantum communication applications because of the deterministic emission of single photons with high brightness and low multiphoton contribution. Here we report on the first intercity QKD experiment using a bright deterministic single photon source. A BB84 protocol based on polarisation encoding is realised using the high-rate single photons in the telecommunication C-band emitted from a semiconductor QD embedded in a circular Bragg grating structure. Utilising the 79 km long link with 25.49 dB loss (equivalent to 130 km for the direct-connected optical fibre) between the German cities of Hannover and Braunschweig, a record-high secret key bits per pulse of 4.8 × 10⁻⁵ with an average quantum bit error ratio of ~ 0.65% are demonstrated. An asymptotic maximum tolerable loss of 28.11 dB is found, corresponding to a length of 144 km of standard telecommunication fibre. Deterministic semiconductor sources therefore challenge state-of-the-art QKD protocols and have the potential to excel in measurement device independent protocols and quantum repeater applications.

A hybrid interface of solid-state single-photon sources and atomic quantum memories is a long sought-after goal in photonic quantum technologies. Here, we demonstrate deterministic storage and retrieval of light from a semiconductor quantum dot in an atomic ensemble quantum memory at telecommunications wavelengths. We store single photons from an indium arsenide quantum dot in a high-bandwidth rubidium vapor–based quantum memory, with a total internal memory efficiency of (12.9 ± 0.4)%. The signal-to-noise ratio of the retrieved light field is 18.2 ± 0.6, limited only by detector dark counts.