Decay lifetime and evolution of semiconductor quantum dots in photonic crystals

Spontaneous emission from GaAs/AlGaAs quantum dots (QDs) embedded in photonic crystals with a narrow photonic band gap is studied theoretically. The results show that the decay lifetime is very sensitive to the sizes of QDs, and both inhibited and accelerated emission can occur, which had been indicated in a previous experiment. The Weisskopf-Wigner approximation, good for atoms and molecules, may be incorrect for QDs. A damped Rabi oscillation of the excited state with the transition frequency outside the photonic band gap may appear, which is impossible for atoms and molecules. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

National Basic Research Program of China G2009CB929300 National Natural Science Foundation of China 6052 1001 60776061This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) grant No. G2009CB929300 and the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 6052 1001 and 60776061.