Interfacing single photons and single quantum dots with photonic nanostructures

Photonic nanostructures provide a means of tailoring the interaction between light and matter and the past decade has witnessed tremendous experimental and theoretical progress on this subject. In particular, the combination with semiconductor quantum dots has proven successful. This manuscript reviews quantum optics with excitons in single quantum dots embedded in photonic nanostructures. The ability to engineer the light-matter interaction strength in integrated photonic nanostructures enables a range of fundamental quantum-electrodynamics experiments on, e.g., spontaneous-emission control, modified Lamb shifts, and enhanced dipole-dipole interaction. Furthermore, highly efficient single-photon sources and giant photon nonlinearities may be implemented with immediate applications for photonic quantum-information processing. This review summarizes the general theoretical framework of photon emission including the role of dephasing processes and applies it to photonic nanostructures of current interest, such as photonic-crystal cavities and waveguides, dielectric nanowires, and plasmonic waveguides. The introduced concepts are generally applicable in quantum nanophotonics and apply to a large extent also to other quantum emitters, such as molecules, nitrogen vacancy centers, or atoms. Finally, the progress and future prospects of applications in quantum-information processing are considered.