(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- Life may be as unpredictable as a box of chocolates, but ideally, you always know what you’re going to get from a quantum dot. A quantum dot should produce one, and only one, photon—the smallest constituent of light—each time it is energized. This characteristic makes it attractive for use in various quantum technologies such as secure communications. Oftentimes, however, the trick is in finding the dots.

“Self-assembled, epitaxially grown” quantum dots have the highest optical quality. They randomly emerge (self-assemble) at the interface between two layers of a semiconductor crystal as it is built up layer-by-layer (epitaxially grown).

They grow randomly, but in order for the dots to be useful, they need to be located in a precise relation to some other photonic structure, be it a grating, resonator, or waveguide, that can control the photons that the quantum dot generates. However, finding the dots—they’re just about 10 nanometers across—is no small feat.

Always up for a challenge, researchers working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a simple new technique for locating them, and used it to create high-performance single photon sources.

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