Resonance photoluminescence from a single semiconductor quantum dot in a microcavity.

The analogue of resonance fluorescence in atomic physics is demonstrated for the first time in a zero-dimensional solid-state system consisting of self-assembled InGaAs quantum dots. The dots were embedded in a planar microcavity so that the quantum dot emission, coupled to the resonant cavity modes, was effectively decoupled from the excitation field. The latter was introduced via waveguide modes with a fiber in a side-excitation configuration. The result is a background-free detection of a single quantum dot's photoluminescence which shows antibunched photon emission and can be driven into Rabi oscillations using pulsed excitation.