We study the inhibition of optical excitation and enhancement of Rabi flopping and frequency in semiconductor quantum dots via plasmonic effects. This is done by demonstrating that the interaction of a quantum dot with a laser field in the vicinity of a metallic nanoparticle can be described in terms of optical Bloch equations with a plasmically normalized Rabi frequency. We show that in the weak-field regime plasmonic effects can suppress the interband transitions, inhibiting exciton generation. In the strong-field regime these effects delay the response of the quantum dot to the laser field and enhance Rabi flopping. We relate these to the conversion of Rabi frequency from a real quantity into a complex and strongly frequency-dependent quantity as plasmonic effects become significant. We show that, within the strong-field regime, in the wavelength range where real and imaginary parts of this frequency reach their maxima, a strongly frequency-dependent enhancement of carrier excitation can happen.

No abstract

Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) is shown to be effective in trapping light for enhanced light absorption and hence performance in photonic and optoelectronic devices. Implementation of LSPR in all‐inorganic perovskite nanocrystals (PNCs) is particularly important considering their unique advantages in optoelectronics. Motivated by this, the first success in colloidal synthesis of AuCu/CsPbCl3 core/shell PNCs and observation of enhanced light absorption by the perovskite CsPbCl3 shell of thickness in the range of 2–4 nm, enabled by the LSPR AuCu core of an average diameter of 7.1 nm, is reported. This enhanced light absorption leads to a remarkably enhanced photoresponse in PNCs/graphene nanohybrid photodetectors using the AuCu/CsPbCl3 core/shell PNCs, by more than 30 times as compared to the counterparts with CsPbCl3 PNCs only (8–12 nm in dimension). This result illustrates the feasibility in implementation of LSPR light trapping directly in core/shell PNCs for high‐performance optoelectronics.

We study optical effects in a hybrid system composed of a semiconductor quantum dot and a spherical metal nanoparticle that interacts with a weak probe electromagnetic field. We use modified nonlinear density matrix equations for the description of the optical properties of the system and obtain a closed-form expression for the linear susceptibilities of the quantum dot, the metal nanoparticle, and the total system. We then investigate the dependence of the susceptibility on the interparticle distance as well as on the material parameters of the hybrid system. We find that the susceptibility of the quantum dot exhibits optical transparency for specific frequencies. In addition, we show that there is a range of frequencies of the applied field for which the susceptibility of the semiconductor quantum dot leads to gain. This suggests that in such a hybrid system quantum coherence can reverse the course of energy transfer, allowing flow of energy from the metallic nanoparticle to the quantum dot. We also explore the susceptibility of the metal nanoparticle and show that it is strongly influenced by the presence of the quantum dot.

We study the generation of tunable gain without inversion in semiconductor quantum dots using plasmonic effects. For this we investigate the impact of localized surface plasmons on coherent nonlinear exciton effects in a quantum dot when it is located in the vicinity of a metallic nanoparticle. It is shown that when such a system is exposed to a laser field and the distance between the quantum dot and the metallic nanoparticle is reduced the initial impact of plasmons is enhancement of the ac-Stark shift in the quantum dot. When this distance is reduced beyond a critical value, the results show abrupt formation of a significant of amount of gain without inversion in the quantum dot. We show that such a 'molecular' gain is associated with the plasmonic metaresonance (PMR) formed via combined effects of laser-induced coherence in the quantum dot and plasmons.

We introduce ultra-fast tunable nanoswitches based on the transition between states of nanoparticle meta-molecules. These molecules are formed (activated) when hybrid systems consisting of metallic nanoparticles and semiconductor quantum dots interact with coherent light sources (laser fields). The switching process occurs via minuscule changes of the refractive index of the environment or the distance between the quantum dots and metallic nanoparticles. These changes stimulate the transition between the states of the meta-molecules in nanosecond timescales, setting up dramatic optical events that can be observed easily. These nanoswitches can be tuned by varying the intensity of the activating laser field, allowing us to adjust the switching process to occur at different values of refractive indices. The results open a new horizon for chemically, biologically, or physically triggered optical nanoswitches and nanosensors that are sensitive to ultra-small changes in the environment.

We study the application of an infrared laser to control heat dissipation in a metallic nanoparticle when it is in the vicinity of a semiconductor quantum dot. The infrared laser is considered to be near-resonant with two of the conduction states of the quantum dot, coherently mixing them together. Via exciton-plasmon coupling, this process normalizes the internal field of the metallic nanoparticle, forming a plasmonic (thermal) electromagnetically induced transparency. When this process happens the metallic nanoparticle becomes nearly completely non-dissipative around its plasmon frequency, while it remains strongly dissipative at other frequencies. We show that, by adjusting the intensity of the infrared laser, one can control the transparency window width and optical Stark shift associated with such a process.

We study the variation of the energy absorption rate in a hybrid semiconductor quantum dot-metallic nanoparticle system doped in a photonic crystal. The quantum dot is taken as a three-level V-configuration system and is driven by two applied fields (probe and control). We consider that one of the excitonic resonance frequencies is near to the plasmonic resonance frequency of the metallic nanoparticle, and is driven by the probe field. The other excitonic resonance frequency is far from both the plasmonic resonance frequency and the photonic bandgap edge, and is driven by the control field. In the absence of the photonic crystal we found that the system supports three excitonic-induced transparencies in the energy absorption spectrum of the metallic nanoparticle. We show that the photonic crystal allows us to manipulate the frequencies of such excitonic-induced transparencies and the amplitude of the energy absorption rate.