Oxide-apertured microcavity single-photon-emitting diodes-simultaneous confinement of current and light

We report on the development of a generation of microcavity single-photon sources in which an aluminium oxide aperture provides simultaneous confinement of the injected current and the optical mode. The aperture is formed by the wet oxidation of an aluminium-rich AlGaAs layer. This approach allows a high quality cavity to be successfully integrated into an electrical device, from which enhanced photon emission is observed through the Purcell effect. The resulting source demonstrated an improved photon collection efficiency and was shown to operate at repetition rates in excess of 0.5 GHz.