Generating indistinguishable photons from a quantum dot in a noisy environment

Abstract

Single photons from semiconductor quantum dots are promising resources for linear optical quantum computing, or, when coupled to spin states, quantum repeaters. To realize such schemes, the photons must exhibit a high degree of indistinguishability. However, the solid-state environment presents inherent obstacles for this requirement as intrinsic semiconductor fluctuations can destroy the photon indistinguishability. Here we use resonance fluorescence to generate indistinguishable photons from a single quantum dot in an environment filled with many charge-fluctuating traps. Over long time-scales ($>50$ $\mu$s), flickering of the emission due to significant spectral fluctuations reduce the count rates. Nevertheless, due to the specificity of resonance fluorescence, high-visibility two-photon interference is achieved.