Nonlinear Dynamics in Semiconductor Lasers - Abstract

Kantner, Markus

Thermodynamically consistent modeling of electrically driven quantum dot based light emitters on a device scale

Semiconductor quantum optics is on the leap from the lab to real world applications. To advance the development of novel devices such as non-classical light sources and nanolasers based on semiconductor quantum dots, device engineers will need simulation tools that combine classical device physics with cavity quantum electrodynamics. As a step on this route, we connect the well-established fields of semi-classical semiconductor transport theory and the theory of open quantum systems to meet this requirement. By coupling the drift-diffusion system with a quantum master equation in Lindblad form, we introduce a new hybrid quantum-classical modeling approach that provides a comprehensive description of quantum dot devices on multiple scales: It enables the calculation of quantum optical figures of merit and the spatially resolved simulation of the current flow in realistic semiconductor device geometries in a unified way. The model system is shown to obey the fundamental principles of (non-)equilibrium thermodynamics (conservation of charge, microscopic reversibility in the thermodynamic equilibrium and the second law of thermodynamics). The approach is demonstrated by numerical simulations of an electrically driven single-photon source based on a single quantum dot in the stationary and transient operation regime.