We probe the indistinguishability of photons emitted by a semiconductor quantum dot (QD) via time- and temperature- dependent two-photon interference (TPI) experiments. An increase in temporal-separation between consecutive photon emission events, reveals a decrease in TPI visibility on a nanosecond timescale, theoretically described by a non-Markovian noise process in agreement with fluctuating charge-traps in the QD's vicinity. Phonon-induced pure dephasing results in a decrease in TPI visibility from (96±4)\% at 10\,K to a vanishing visibility at 40\,K. In contrast to Michelson-type measurements, our experiments provide direct access to the time-dependent coherence of a quantum emitter at a nanosecond timescale.
@article{arxiv.1507.05900,
title = {Exploring Dephasing of a Solid-State Quantum Emitter via Time- and Temperature- Dependent Hong-Ou-Mandel Experiments},
author = {A. Thoma and P. Schnauber and M. Gschrey and M. Seifried and J. Wolters and J. -H. Schulze and A. Strittmatter and S. Rodt and A. Carmele and A. Knorr and T. Heindel and S. Reitzenstein},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1507.05900},
year = {2016}
}