Indistinguishable Photons from Independent Semiconductor Nanostructures

Abstract

We demonstrate quantum interference between photons generated by the radiative decay processes of excitons that are bound to isolated fluorine donor impurities in $\mathrm{ZnSe}/\mathrm{ZnMgSe}$ quantum-well nanostructures. The ability to generate single photons from these devices is confirmed by autocorrelation experiments, and the indistinguishability of photons emitted from two independent nanostructures is confirmed via a Hong-Ou-Mandel dip. These results indicate that donor impurities in appropriately engineered semiconductor structures can portray atomlike homogeneity and coherence properties, potentially enabling scalable technologies for future large-scale optical quantum computers and quantum communication networks.