Growth and characterization of single quantum dot devices for fiber-based quantum communications

Single photon sources have recently attracted significant interest for their potential role in the future applications of quantum cryptography, and in the longer term, quantum computing. Among the different types of single photon emitters, semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are good candidates as they combine discrete electronic transitions with the possibility of electrical excitation. Self-assembled InAs QDs on GaAs substrate are by far the most studied system as they can easily be grown into a microcavity structure. Embedding these into a microcavity is important as it increases the extraction efficiency, directionality and speeds up the photon emission. Until now, most studies have concentrated on QDs emitting in the λ