High-brightness single photon source from a quantum dot in a directional-emission nanocavity.

We analyze a single photon source consisting of an InAs quantum dot coupled to a directional-emission photonic crystal (PC) cavity implemented in GaAs. On resonance, the dot's lifetime is reduced by more than 10 times, to 45 ps. Compared to the standard three-hole defect cavity, the perturbed PC cavity design improves the collection efficiency into an objective lens (NA = 0.75) by factor 4.5, and improves the coupling efficiency of the collected light into a single mode fiber by factor 1.9. The emission frequency is determined by the cavity mode, which is antibunched to g((2))(0) = 0.05. The cavity design also enables efficient coupling to a higher-order cavity mode for local optical excitation of cavity-coupled quantum dots. (c0 2009 Optical Society of America