Designs for high-efficiency electrically pumped photonic nanowire single-photon sources

We propose and analyze three electrically-pumped nanowire single-photon source structures, which achieve output efficiencies of more than 80%. These structures are based on a quantum dot embedded in a photonic nanowire with carefully tailored ends and optimized contact electrodes. Contrary to conventional cavity-based sources, this non-resonant approach provides broadband spontaneous emission control and features an improved fabrication tolerance towards surface roughness and imperfections. Using an element-splitting approach, we analyze the various building blocks of the designs with respect to realistic variations of the experimental fabrication parameters. (C)2010 Optical Society of America