Emission characteristics of quantum dots in planar microcavities

TL;DR

This paper investigates how quantum dots embedded in planar microcavities emit light, revealing enhanced emission for resonant dots and providing insights into their spatial emission patterns through experiments and modeling.

Contribution

It presents new experimental data and a simple model explaining emission enhancements and spatial distributions of quantum dots in microcavities.

Findings

Resonant quantum dots show fivefold emission enhancement.

Emission spatial extent decreases with detuning.

Theoretical model explains experimental observations.

Abstract

The emission properties of single quantum dots in planar microcavities are studied experimentally and theoretically. Fivefold Enhanced spontaneous emission outside the microcavity is found for dots in resonance with the cavity mode, relative to detuned dots, while their radiative lifetime is only marginally decreased. Using high power excitation we obtain the in-plane cavity dispersion. Near field images of the emission show spatial distributions of several microns for resonant dots, which decrease in size with the detuning from resonance. These experimental findings are explained using a simple and intuitive model.