Colloquium: Dr. Daniel Gammon, Naval Research Laboratory

Semiconductor quantum dots are crystals so small that they behave as artificial atoms. They are excellent sources of single photons on demand, and each can serve as a qubit for quantum information technologies. Recently we have succeeded in inserting a charged quantum dot into an optical cavity formed in a photonic crystal membrane. A new fabrication technique has led to indistinguishable QDs and the demonstration of super-radiance of quantum dots in a photonic crystal waveguide. We anticipate that the quantum dot-cavity structures can ultimately serve as nodes in a quantum network connected through the emission of single photons.  I will present our current efforts in the fabrication and quantum optics measurements of individual quantum dots integrated into photonic architectures.