A user‐friendly, fiber‐coupled, single‐photon source operating at telecom wavelengths is a key component of photonic quantum networks providing long‐haul, ultra‐secure data exchange. To take full ...advantage of quantum‐mechanical data protection and to maximize the transmission rate and distance, a true quantum source providing single photons on demand is highly desirable. This great challenge is tackled by developing a ready‐to‐use semiconductor quantum‐dot‐based device that launches single photons at a wavelength of 1.3 µm directly into a single‐mode optical fiber. In the proposed approach, the quantum dot is deterministically integrated into a nanophotonic structure to ensure efficient on‐chip coupling into a fiber. The whole arrangement is integrated into a 19ʺ compatible housing to enable stand‐alone operation by cooling via a compact Stirling cryocooler. The realized source delivers single photons with a multiphoton events probability as low as 0.15 and a single‐photon emission rate of up to 73 kHz into a standard telecom single‐mode fiber.
A user‐friendly, compact, and portable triggered single‐photon source operating in the telecom O‐band is demonstrated. The device provides single photons with g(2)(0) = 0.15 and a flux of up to 73 kHz at a standard physical‐contact single‐mode fiber connector output. A fully deterministic fabrication technology makes it the first application‐ready quantum‐dot‐based source to enable ultra‐secure data exchange in future fiber‐based quantum communication networks.
The cover image presents the first stand‐alone telecom quantum light source launching single photons directly into a single‐mode optical fiber. It includes a semiconductor quantum dot (QD) which is ...excited by an integrated laser and cooled by compact Stirling cooler at 40 K. The advanced quantum device includes all filter elements to suppress intensive laser light and to direct single photons at a wavelength of 1.3 µm to the output. For further details see article number 2000018 by Stephan Reitzenstein and co‐workers.
A user-friendly fibre-coupled single-photon source operating at telecom wavelengths is a key component of photonic quantum networks providing long-haul ultra-secure data exchange. To take full ...advantage of quantum-mechanical data protection and to maximize the transmission rate and distance, a true quantum source providing single-photons on demand is highly desirable. We tackle this great challenge by developing a ready to use semiconductor quantum dot (QD)-based device that launches single photons at a wavelength of 1.3 um directly into a single-mode optical fibre. In our approach the QD is deterministically integrated into a nanophotonic structure to ensure efficient on-chip coupling into a fibre. The whole arrangement is integrated into a 19" compatible housing to enable stand-alone operation by cooling via a compact Stirling cryocooler. The realized source delivers single photons with multiphoton events probability as low as 0.15 and single-photon emission rate up to 73 kHz into a standard telecom single-mode fibre.