Efficient Excitonic Population Transfer in a Coupled Quantum Dot–Metal Nanoparticle Structure Interacting with a Chirped Laser Pulse

Athanasios Smponias,Dionisis Stefanatos,Emmanuel Paspalakis

doi:10.3390/iocn2020-07884

Abstract

We apply the method of rapid adiabatic passage to a semiconductor quantum dot coupled to a plasmonic nanostructure, specifically a metal nanoparticle, and examine the excitonic state preparation efficiency for different distances between the quantum dot and the metal nanoparticle. In particular, results for the interaction of the coupled quantum dot–metal nanoparticle structure with linearly chirped Gaussian laser pulses are presented. We find that efficient population transfer occurs for a wide range of system parameters, like pulse areas and chirp rates, for different distances between the quantum dot and the metal nanoparticle. The presence of the metal nanoparticle influences significantly the population transfer to the exciton state, when the distance between the quantum dot and the metal nanoparticle becomes small.

Highlights

A relatively new area of active research combining nanophotonics, quantum optics and quantum technology studies the optical properties of complex structures containing plasmonic nanostructures and quantum systems, such as molecules and semiconductor quantum dots [1]
We find that efficient population transfer occurs for a wide range of system parameters, like pulse areas and chirp rates, for different distances between the quantum dot and the metal nanoparticle
We show that the presence of the metal nanoparticle influences significantly the population transfer to the exciton state, when the distance between the quantum dot and the metal nanoparticle becomes small

Summary

Introduction

A relatively new area of active research combining nanophotonics, quantum optics and quantum technology studies the optical properties of complex structures containing plasmonic nanostructures and quantum systems, such as molecules and semiconductor quantum dots [1]. The studies to date on the controlled population dynamics of quantum dots coupled to plasmonic nanostructures have dealt mainly with the preparation of the exciton state by resonant methods [2,3,4,5,6,7], while more recently there has been work on optimal pulses as well [8]. There are very important methods of population transfer and quantum control that are adiabatic and are not sensitive to moderate changes in the parameters of the laser fields. One of these methods is rapid adiabatic passage [9]. This method has been used extensively in isolated quantum dots, both theoretically [10] and experimentally [11,12]

Methods

Results

Conclusion