The field of quantum mechanics is opening new concepts, thus revolutionizing today's communication technology. This revolution is based on entangled states which do not have any classic analogon, so efficient fabrication of entangled states is essential for these efforts and the search for an ideal source of entangled photons is running at full speed. Our project aims at supporting and establishing semiconductor quantum dots as sources of entangled photons.

As new components we will introduce dark states, which can be used for controlled excitation of optically active states in the quantum dot and thus enable a deterministic fabrication of time-entangled photon pairs. Thereby we will achieve a distinctly more powerful source of entangled photons than was feasible before. Furthermore, we will investigate the fabrication of multi-state and multi-photon entanglement by means of quantum dots and quantum dot molecules. These goals will be achieved by a close cooperation between theory and experiment, and these combined efforts in a shared project will lead to increasing the level of functionality of quantum dots as sources of entangled photons, taking another big step towards the realization of the quantum repeater, the heart of quantum communication.

PI at JKU: Prof. Dr. Armando Rastelli
PI at University of Innsbruck, Institute of Experimental Physics: Prof. Dr. Gregor Weihs
Project duration: 01.09.2020-31.08.2023