We introduce the photonic trumpet, a dielectric structure which ensures a nearly perfect coupling between an embedded quantum light source and a Gaussian free-space beam. A photonic trumpet exploits both the broadband spontaneous emission control provided by a single-mode photonic wire and the adiabatic expansion of this mode within a conical taper. Numerical simulations highlight the outstanding performance and robustness of this concept. As a first application in the field of quantum optics, we report the realisation of an ultra-bright single-photon source. The device, a GaAs photonic trumpet containing few InAs quantum dots, demonstrates a first-lens external efficiency of 0.75±0.1.
@article{arxiv.1209.5269,
title = {The photonic trumpet: An efficient, broadband interface between a solid-state quantum emitter and a Gaussian beam},
author = {Mathieu Munsch and Nitin S. Malik and Niels Gregersen and Joël Bleuse and Emmanuel Dupuy and Adrien Delga and Jesper Mørk and Jean-Michel Gérard and Julien Claudon},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1209.5269},
year = {2016}
}