Photonic Nanostructures for Efficient Coupling and Light Enhancement in Semiconductor Quantum Technologies

Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are a promising platform for quantum information processing and quantum communication due to their short excitation lifetimes, high single-photon purity and indistinguishability of the emitted photons. However, they suffer from low light-extraction efficiency and weak coupling to optical modes, which limits their performance and application potential. By enhancing the light-emitting properties of semicon-ductor quantum structures, in particular semiconductor QDs, photonic nanostructures have emerged as a promising solution to these challenges. These structures, which include micro cavities, photonic crystal cavities and Bragg gratings, are able to manipulate light at the nanoscale, enabling strong light-matter interactions and hence enhanced light-emitting properties [1].