Nonlinear optical rectification and optical bistability in a coupled asymmetric quantum dot-metal nanoparticle hybrid

Abstract

We study the optical response of a coupled asymmetric semiconductor quantum dot-spherical metal nanoparticle structure. The asymmetric quantum dot has permanent electric dipole moments that also interact with light. We derive the density matrix equations for the system including the modification of the electric field and the exciton-plasmon coupling. We emphasize on the effects of the nonlinear optical rectification and controlled optical bistability and analyze these phenomena for different values of the light intensity and different distances between the quantum dot and the metal nanoparticle. We show that when the system is set in a situation where optical bistability can be produced, the optical rectification of the hybrid system is bivalued. We also analyze the slow-down to reach the steady state when the system is driven close and far from the turning points.

Efficient Biexciton Preparation in a Quantum Dot—Metal Nanoparticle System Using On-Off Pulses

“…An active research topic within the field of quantum plasmonics [ 1 , 2 ] is the efficient population control of the exciton and biexciton states in semiconductor quantum dots (SQD) closely placed to metallic nanoparticles (MNP) [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]. For these hybrid nanostructures the population dynamics is rather different compared to the case of a single SQD, since the presence of the MNP amplifies the external electric field and induces interaction between SQD excitons and localized surface plasmons [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ].…”

“…For these hybrid nanostructures the population dynamics is rather different compared to the case of a single SQD, since the presence of the MNP amplifies the external electric field and induces interaction between SQD excitons and localized surface plasmons [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ]. A great portion of studies in this area is devoted to population transfer between the ground and single exciton states of the SQD, using external fields and with the MNP present [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 16 ]. In many of these works it is reported that the MNP substantially modifies the period of Rabi oscillations between these states [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ], which can even be destroyed for specific SQD-MNP distances [ 4 , 5 , 8 , 9 ].…”

“…A great portion of studies in this area is devoted to population transfer between the ground and single exciton states of the SQD, using external fields and with the MNP present [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 16 ]. In many of these works it is reported that the MNP substantially modifies the period of Rabi oscillations between these states [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ], which can even be destroyed for specific SQD-MNP distances [ 4 , 5 , 8 , 9 ]. High levels of population transfer to the exciton state can be achieved by applying carefully designed short [ 12 , 14 , 16 ] and ultra-short [ 13 , 14 , 16 ] pulses, while in another work the presence of MNP has been used to accomplish electromagnetically induced selective excitonic population transfer [ 10 ].…”

Controlling the Pump-Probe Optical Response in Asymmetric Tunneling-Controlled Double Quantum Dot Molecule—Metal Nanoparticle Hybrids

“…In current studies in photonics, coupled structures formed from semiconductor quantum dots and metal particles at the nanoscale play an important role as they give, in many cases, enhanced optical properties in comparison to individual SQDs and MNPs [1]. The coupling of the excitons to plasmons is responsible for the emergence of interesting optical effects from the SQD-MNP structures, including altered excitonic Rabi oscillations [2][3][4], creation and control of optical bistability and multistability [5][6][7][8][9], population transfer to the exciton [10][11][12][13][14] or biexciton state with high accuracy [15][16][17], controlled slow light [18], creation of gain without inversion [19][20][21], strong enhancement of second harmonic generation [22], and strong modification of four-wave mixing, as well as self-or cross-Kerr nonlinearity [23][24][25][26], control of resonance fluorescence [27][28][29][30], and several others [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]. These effects can find applications in the construction of efficient optical devices which can be implemented in the fields of nanophotonics and quantum technology.…”

Effective Control of the Optical Bistability of a Three-Level Quantum Emitter near a Nanostructured Plasmonic Metasurface

“…Various phenomena have been studied in such media, including the manipulation of spontaneous emission [13][14][15][16], Fano effects in energy absorption [17][18][19][20], slow light and optical transparency [21][22][23], enhancement of the refractive index [24], modification and enhancement of the Kerr nonlinearity [25][26][27][28], four-wave-mixing [29,30], inversionless gain [31][32][33][34][35][36], OB or optical multistability (OM) [37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49], and many others [50][51][52]. The contemporary fabrication methods [53][54][55][56] for realizing plasmonic nanostructures incorporating quantum emitters [57] enable the experimental verification of the above phenomena.…”