Professor Ravi Uppu

Department of Physics and Astronomy

University of Iowa

Title: Deterministic Emitter-Photon Interfaces for Quantum Technologies

Abstract: Photons are essential for transmitting quantum information given the ease with which we can generate, manipulate, and detect them. While several physical systems such as atoms, ions, and quantum dots were explored as candidate photon sources over the past few decades, none could achieve the steep performance metrics necessary for quantum advantage demonstrations. A simple reason behind the shortcoming being inefficiency, i.e., the ease at which one could lose a photon. I will discuss our two-pronged approach in overcoming this challenge, which involved creating 1) an efficient emitter using a semiconductor quantum dot and 2) a deterministic emitter-photon interface through nanofabricating photonic structures. I will illustrate how our photon source enables transformative capabilities in photonic quantum simulation. I will end the talk with a discussion about the prospects for our deterministic emitter-photon interface in applications such as multiqubit entanglement and photonic quantum computing.