This book provides the theoretical background required for modelling photonic crystals and their optical properties, while presenting the large variety of devices where photonic crystals have found application. As such, it aims at building bridges between optics, electromagnetism and solid state physics. This second edition includes the most recent developments of two-dimensional photonic crystal devices, as well as some of the last results reported on metamaterials.

This book highlights the most recent developments in quantum dot spin physics and the generation of deterministic superior non-classical light states with quantum dots. In particular, it addresses single quantum dot spin manipulation, spin-photon entanglement and the generation of single-photon and entangled photon pair states with nearly ideal properties. The role of semiconductor microcavities, nanophotonic interfaces as well as quantum photonic integrated circuits is emphasized. The latest theoretical and experimental studies of phonon-dressed light matter interaction, single-dot lasing and resonance fluorescence in QD cavity systems are also provided. The book is written by the leading experts in the field.

To this end we worked to combine engineered QD5 with engineered PC cavities to explore and exploit simultaneous electronic and optical confinement. Technical thrusts included Nanocavity design and device development along with integration with the quantum dot (QD) active region. The first approach which we considered was to incorporate self-assembled QD5 into the starting epitaxial material, where the PC nanocavities are fabricated after growth. The PCs design and fabrication was optimized for high cavity Q and minimal cavity volume. In parallel, we developed nanopatterning capability to arbitrarily place a single QD or an ensemble of identical QUs within the PC.

This thesis breaks new ground in the physics of photonic circuits for quantum optical applications. The photonic circuits are based either on ridge waveguides or photonic crystals, with embedded quantum dots providing the single qubit, quantum optical emitters. The highlight of the thesis is the first demonstration of a spin-photon interface using an all-waveguide geometry, a vital component of a quantum optical circuit, based on deterministic single photon emission from a single quantum dot. The work makes a further important contribution to the field by demonstrating the effects and limitations that inevitable disorder places on photon propagation in photonic crystal waveguides, a further key component of quantum optical circuits. Overall the thesis offers a number of highly novel contributions to the field; those on chip circuits may prove to be the only means of scaling up the highly promising quantum-dot-based quantum information technology.