InGaAsP/InP-air-aperture microcavities for single-photon sources at 1.55-μm telecommunication band

InGaAsP/InP-air-aperture micropillar cavities are proposed to serve as 1.55-mu m single photon sources, which are indispensable in silica-fiber based quantum information processing. Owing to air-apertures introduced to InP layers, and adiabatically tapered distributed Bragg-reflector structures used in the central cavity layers, the pillar diameters can be less than 1 mu m, achieving mode volume as small as similar to(lambda/n)(3), and the quality factors are more than 10(4) - 10(5), sufficient to increase the quantum dot emission rate for 100 times and create strong coupling between the optical mode and the 1.55-mu m InAs/InP quantum dot emitter. The mode wavelengths and quality factors are found weakly changing with the cavity size and the deviation from the ideal shape, indicating the robustness against the imperfection of the fabrication technique. The fabrication, simply epitaxial growth, dry and chemical etching, is a damage-free and monolithic process, which is advantageous over previous hybrid cavities. The above properties satisfy the requirements of efficient, photon-indistinguishable and coherent 1.55-mu m quantum dot single photon sources, so the proposed InGaAsP/InP-air-aperture micropillar cavities are prospective candidates for quantum information devices at telecommunication band.