Quantum dots in photonic crystals: from single photon sources to single photon nonlinear optics

Abstract

A quantum dot strongly coupled to a photonic crystal resonator is used to investigate cavity quantum electrodynamics phenomena in solid state physics. Nonlinear optical phenomena such as photon blockade and photon induced tunneling are observed in this system. The nonlinearity of this system is sensitive to intra-cavity photon numbers close to unity, and it has been used to demonstrate conditional phase shifts of 28° at a single photon level and a second order auto-correlation of g 2 (0) = 0.9 in the photon blockade regime. © 2009 SPIE.