Quantum state control with photons, solid-state cavity QED
systems, and micromechanical structures
Dirk
Bouwmeester
Department
of Physics, Center for Spintronics and Quantum Computation
An
overview will be given of the research topics studied by the group of Dirk Bouwmeester
in collaboration with several other research groups.
The
first topic is the study of special quantum states of light, in particular
entangled states, for applications in quantum cryptography and precision
measurements. In particular the importance of photon number resolving detectors
will be addressed.
The
second topic is the design and control of solid-state micro cavities with
embedded semiconductor quantum dots. We will report on the observation of
vanishing-threshold photon crystal lasers with as active gain only 1 to 3
quantum dots, and on an efficient polarization-controlled single photon source.
The
third topic is the study of colloidal quantum dots positioned on a backbone of
DNA.
As a
final topic optical cooling of micromechanical systems will be addressed. In
particular we will show how active feed-back by radiation pressure can cool a
micromechanical cantilever from room temperature to 135 mKelvin. Furthermore we
will discuss the possibility of investigating macroscopic quantum
superpositions and environmental induced quantum decoherence using such
methods.