Tuning the indistinguishability of photons from a solid state two-level system
Raphaël Proux, Maria Maragkou, Emmanuel Baudin, Christophe Voisin, Philippe Roussignol, Carole Diederichs · arXiv (Cornell University) · 2014
Laboratoire Pierre Aigrain, Ecole Normale Sup´erieure, CNRS, Universit ´e Pierre et Marie Curie,Universit´e Paris Diderot, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, FranceWe revisit L. Mandel’s notion that the degree of coherence equals the degree of indistinguishability by per-forming Hong-Ou-Mandel type interferometry with single photons elastically scattered by a cw resonantly-driven excitonic transition of an InAs/GaAs epitaxial quantum dot. We present a comprehensive study of thetemporal profile of the photon coalescence phenomenon which shows that photon coherence times and indis-tinguishabilities are fully tuned by the excitation laser source. The photon indistinguishability can be extendedover unprecedented levels, improving the ability of the detectors to resolve their coalescence, and thus openingnew perspectives to conducting quantum optics with single photons and slow detectors.