Dynamically controlling the emission of single excitons in photonic crystal cavities

Single excitons in semiconductor microcavities represent a solid state and scalable platform for cavity quantum electrodynamics, potentially enabling an interface between flying (photon) and static (exciton) quantum bits in future quantum networks. While both single-photon emission and the strong coupling regime have been demonstrated, further progress has been hampered by the inability to control the coherent evolution of the cavity quantum electrodynamics system in real time, as needed to produce and harness charge–photon entanglement. Here using the ultrafast electrical tuning of the exciton energy in a photonic crystal diode, we demonstrate the dynamic control of the coupling of a single exciton to a photonic crystal cavity mode on a sub-nanosecond timescale, faster than the natural lifetime of the exciton. This opens the way to the control of single-photon waveforms, as needed for quantum interfaces, and to the real-time control of solid-state cavity quantum electrodynamics systems.