Control of excitonic population inversion in a coupled semiconductor quantum dot–metal nanoparticle system

Abstract

We study the potential for controlled population inversion in a coupled system comprised of a semiconductor quantum dot and a metal nanoparticle. We show that the widely used method of population inversion by a π pulse can be modified for small interparticle distances. This modification depends strongly on the pulse duration. We also present analytical solutions of the nonlinear density matrix equations, for specific pulse envelopes, which lead to efficient excitonic population inversion in the quantum dot for several distances between the semiconductor quantum dot and the metal nanoparticle.

Quantum-dot gain without inversion: Effects of dark plasmon-exciton hybridization

“…8(c) and 8(d), this GWI solution can be obtained even if there are more populations in state |1 (96% of populations are in state |1 for this case) than in state |2 at t = 0. This effect may provide a platform for quantum state preparation and population transfer [7,46,47].…”

“…For dispersive and absorptive plasmon nanostructures whose coupling coefficient generally lies between weak and strong coupling regimes, local field effects of surface plasmons enable plasmon-exciton hybridization in a closely packed quantum dot (QD)-metallic nanoparticle (MNP) system [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. In the pioneering work by Zhang et al [3], the plasmon-exciton interaction model included a feedback (i.e., self-interaction of the QD) setup.…”

“…In the pioneering work by Zhang et al [3], the plasmon-exciton interaction model included a feedback (i.e., self-interaction of the QD) setup. Several optical phenomena have been predicted from the hybrid mechanism, such as modified absorption spectra [3], tunable single-photon properties [4], enhanced Kerr nonlinearity [5,6], and controllable population and energy transfer [7,8]. Dark plasmons, which are nonradiative localized surface plasmon modes by virtue of having nonvanishing dipole moments [14], have more localized fields and store more energy than radiative bright modes [15,16].…”

Resonance fluorescence spectrum of aΛ-type quantum emitter close to a metallic nanoparticle

“…The ultracompact optical mode volume achieved in plasmon nanostructures leads to a large resonant enhancement of the local field near the MNP [1][2][3][4], as well as the modification of spontaneous emission rates of the emitter's optical transitions [5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. The exciton-plasmon coupling has received a great deal of attention leading to interesting phenomena like changes in photoluminescence lifetimes [12], in photon statistics [13], in the resonance fluorescence [14][15][16][17][18][19], in plasmon-induced quantum interference effects [20][21][22], in the control over population dynamics [23][24][25][26], and over nonlinear optical processes [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34].…”

Optical precursors with competing linear and nonlinear dispersions in quantum dot molecules

“…The atom-like property allows us to study many quantum-optical phenomena, including EIT [19], self-induced transparency [20], Rabi oscillation [21], and their applications in all-optical switch [22], four-wave mixing [23], Kerr nonlinearity [24,25] and higher-order sidband generation [26,27]. The interacting QDs consist of a QD molecule (QDM).…”