Abstract: Planar fabrication technology can be used to create chip-based structures in which light is confined to wavelength-scale dimensions. The large electric field generated by this tight modal confinement has opened up the opportunity to create devices that can serve as a very sensitive probe of nanoscale materials, where in some structures, the effect of even a single photon can be appreciable. One example system is that of an epitaxially grown semiconductor quantum dot embedded in a nanofabricated optical cavity, a platform in which cavity quantum electrodynamics (cQED) can be studied. In this talk, I will discuss some efforts in developing technologies to realize and interrogate such a system. Topics to be addressed include the creation of low loss semiconductor optical microcavities and the development of an efficient fiber optic channel through which the cavity field can be accessed and interrogated, both in ambient conditions and within a liquid helium cryostat. Recent measurements of a cavity-quantum dot system operating in the 'strong coupling' regime of cQED, where the coherent light-matter interaction rate exceeds all system decay rates, will be presented. |
