Telecom wavelength single-photon emission from quasi-resonantly excited InGaSb/AlGaSb quantum dots

Abstract Deterministic light sources capable of generating quantum states on-demand at wavelengths compatible with fiber optics and atmospheric transmission windows are essential for practical applications in quantum communication, distributed photonic quantum computing, and quantum metrology. Currently, the technology providing semiconductor quantum emitters with the most promising properties is based on filling droplet-etched nanoholes to form quantum dots (QDs). However, the standard GaAs/AlGaAs material system does not offer telecom window emission. Here, we combine this growth method with antimonide-based materials to demonstrate single-photon emission at 1500 nm from a droplet-etched InGaSb QD. Our device with an antimony-based high refractive index contrast back-reflector designed for cryogenic operation and a solid immersion lens improves photon extraction. QD states are protected by a potential barrier limiting the influx of surrounding carriers, which however prevents revealing excitonic fine structure under nonresonant excitation. In this work, we employ a frequency-tunable continuous wave laser to achieve longitudinal optical (LO) phonon-assisted excitation of the QD ground state and resonant excitation of an excited state. These direct approaches for exciting a single InGaSb QD unlock access to its excitonic fine structure. The typical neutral biexciton-exciton cascade exhibits a negative binding energy of 1.4 meV (2.6 nm) and a fine structure splitting of 24.1±0.4 µeV. Furthermore, we obtain spectrally isolated emission from a charged exciton with a multi-photon probability of 5% with LO phonon-assisted two-color excitation. These results represent a major step towards using this novel antimonide-based QD emitters as deterministic quantum light sources in complex quantum secure networks exploiting the wavelength compatibility with standard telecom fibers.