"They are almost comparable to the wavelength of the electron so electron motion is almost zero and the electron cannot move," Arakawa said. "The energy state is fixed. So if we can control the energy of the electron, we can control the number of photons that are emitted."
The wavelength of the photons that are emitted can be controlled by adjusting the size and shape of the quantum dots. Doing so very accurately is difficult so additional filtering is employed to ensure that only those with a wavelength suitable for transmission down commercial optical fiber networks are let through, said Tatsuya Usuki, a researcher at Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd., who also worked on the technology.
Because the accurate generation of single photons is possible and there is no need to throttle back the power, the transmission speed can be increased from a few hundred bits per second to around 400 times that speed, Arakawa said. He estimated a commercial system might be possible to transmit data at up to 100k bps (bits per second).
The group has also made progress on the detection end of the system. Light coming out of the fiber is split into two and sent to two detectors. By measuring the time at which photons arrive researchers can determine whether one or two photons were generated. In the case photons arrive at the same time at each detector, it means two were generated which was not the case with the new system, Arakawa said.
At present the team has succeeded in generating photons at both 1.3 micron and 1.55 micron wavelengths and verified single photon transmission at the former wavelength. Verification of the latter is one of the upcoming goals for the team. The project hopes to develop a practical single photon generator by 2007 and Arakawa predicts commercial systems based on the technology could be available in 5 years.
Details of the research are scheduled to be presented at the 27th International Conference on the Physics of Semiconductors, which will begin in Arizona, U.S., on July 26.
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