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Photon number coherence of a quantum dot-cavity system excited using the swing-up of quantum emitter population scheme

Paul C. A. Hagen1,*, Thomas Bracht2, Mathieu Bozzio3, Moritz Cygorek2, Doris E. Reiter2, Philip Walther3,4, and Vollrath M. Axt1

  • 1Theoretische Physik III, Universität Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany
  • 2Condensed Matter Theory, Department of Physics, TU Dortmund, 44221 Dortmund, Germany
  • 3Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology, University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria
  • 4Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information Sciences (IQOQI), Austrian Academy of Sciences, Boltzmanngasse 3, Vienna 1090, Austria

  • *Contact author: paul.hagen@uni-bayreuth.de
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Phys. Rev. B 114, 305405 – Published 3 November, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/3v5w-1k38

Abstract

To fulfill the security requirements of quantum cryptography, photon number coherence (PNC) of single-photon sources has recently become an important figure of merit. Quantum dots (QDs) embedded in photonic microcavities offer a mature source of single photons, of which many properties can be tuned by the use of different excitation protocols or parameters. We show that the “Swing-UP of quantum EmitteR population” (SUPER) scheme can significantly decrease the PNC of the emitted photon, compared to resonant excitation. The reason for this is a laser-induced Stark shift, which effectively decouples the QD from the cavity during the SUPER excitation. Our calculations account for environmental effects such as phonons and radiative losses.

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Phys. Rev. B 114, 305405– Published 3 November, 2026
  • Received 5 May 2026
  • Revised 7 August 2026
  • Accepted 8 September 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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