Single optical mode-spontaneous emission coupling of a quantum dot in a three-dimensional microcavity

By investigating the interaction of single atoms with a cavity, pioneering experiments in the 1980's demonstrated that the spontaneous emission from an atom is intimately tied to the electromagnetic vacuum field distribution. By adjusting the field distribution with a cavity a discrete mode distribution was created, and enhanced and inhibited spontaneous emission from the atom was observed. We have demonstrated a semiconductor analog of the single-atom cavity experiments using a single InAs quantum dot (QD) as an artificial atom. With this solid-state implementation it is possible to make compact, regulated single-photon sources with high efficiency and high repetition rate for applications such as quantum cryptography.