Influence of exciton dynamics on the interference of two photons from a microcavity single-photon source

One- and two-photon interference visibilities observed with the exciton emission from a quantum dot microcavity single-photon source are sensitive to the excitation conditions. In particular, the coherence time of the source is reduced with increasing pump power or excitation of the barrier layers. Furthermore, the two-photon interference visibility is affected by a long lived population of the biexciton state in the dot. This suggests that two-photon interference may be improved by controlling the exciton dynamics in the dot or by improved temporal resolution of the detection set-up. (c) 2005 Optical Society of America.