Up-conversion superfluorescence induced by abrupt truncation of coherent field and plasmonic nanocavity.

We theoretically propose a new method for generating up-converted coherent light from two-level systems (TLSs) coupled with a plasmonic nanocavity. The emission spectrum of a TLS excited by a strong laser exhibits a triplet structure called the Mollow triplet. If the lower Mollow sideband is tuned to the cavity mode energy, population inversion of a TLS occurs. When the driving laser is abruptly truncated under this condition, an up-converted photon is emitted from the TLSs. We also predict the up-converted superfluorescence from an ensemble of TLSs as a correlation effect among the excited states of the TLSs.

Conditions for stronger field enhancement of semiconductor bowtie nanoantennas.

A semiconductor bowtie nanoantenna acts as a high-quality cavity because a strongly enhanced field with a narrow spectral width appears at a nanogap region owing to exciton resonance. We theoretically investigate suitable antenna structures to obtain a strong field enhancement, and the following conditions are found: (i) the antenna structure is long in the direction of light polarization, and (ii) the tip structure near the nanogap is blunt. Condition (ii) is opposite to that for a metallic bowtie nanoantenna because the exciton wave function is distributed to avoid a narrow area near the sharp tip. These conditions are expected to be guidelines for designing efficient semiconductor nanoantennas for various applications.

Cross-circularly polarized two-exciton states in one to three dimensions.

Biexciton and two-exciton dissociated states of Frenkel-type excitons are studied theoretically using an exciton tight-binding (TB) model including a polarization degree of freedom. Because the biexciton consists of two cross-circularly polarized excitons, an on-site interaction (V) between the two excitons should be considered in addition to a nearest-neighbor two-exciton attractive interaction (δ). Although there are an infinitely large number of combinations of V and δ providing the observed binding energy of a biexciton, the wave function of the biexciton and two-exciton dissociated states is nearly independent of these parameter sets. This means that all the two-exciton states are uniquely determined from the exciton TB model. There are a spatially symmetric and an antisymmetric biexciton state for a one-dimensional (1D) lattice and two symmetric and one antisymmetric biexciton states at most for two- (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) lattices. In contrast, when the polarization degree of freedom is ignored, there is one biexciton state for 1D, 2D, and 3D lattices. For this study, a rapid and memory-saving calculation method for two-exciton states is extended to include the polarization degree of freedom.

Large and well-defined Rabi splitting in a semiconductor nanogap cavity.

We propose a nanogap structure composed of semiconductor nanoparticles forming an optical cavity. The resonant excitation of excitons in the nanoparticles can generate a localized strong light field in the gap region, also called "hot spot". The spectral width of the hot spot is significantly narrow because of the small exciton damping and the dephasing at low temperature, so the semiconductor nanogap structure acts as a high-Q cavity. In addition, the interaction between light and matter at the nanogap is significantly larger than that in a conventional microcavity, because the former has a small cavity-mode volume beyond the diffraction limit. We theoretically demonstrate the large and well-defined vacuum-Rabi splitting of a two-level emitter placed inside the semiconductor nanogap cavity: the Rabi splitting energy of 1.7 meV for the transition dipole moment of the emitter (25 Debye) is about 6.3 times larger than the spectral width. An optical cavity providing such a large and well-defined Rabi splitting is highly suited for studying characteristic features of the cavity quantum electrodynamics and for the development of new applications.

Rapid calculation method for Frenkel-type two-exciton states in one to three dimensions.

Biexciton and two-exciton dissociated states of Frenkel-type excitons are well described by a tight-binding model with a nearest-neighbor approximation. Such two-exciton states in a finite-size lattice are usually calculated by numerical diagonalization of the Hamiltonian, which requires an increasing amount of computational time and memory as the lattice size increases. I develop here a rapid, memory-saving method to calculate the energies and wave functions of two-exciton states by employing a bisection method. In addition, an attractive interaction between two excitons in the tight-binding model can be obtained directly so that the biexciton energy agrees with the observed energy, without the need for the trial-and-error procedure implemented in the numerical diagonalization method.

Simulation method for resonant light scattering of exciton confined to arbitrary geometry.

We develop an electromagnetic (EM) simulation method based on a finite-element method (FEM) for an exciton confined to a semiconductor nanostructure. The EM field inside the semiconductor excites two transverse exciton polariton and a single longitudinal exciton at a given frequency. Established EM simulation methods cannot be applied directly to semiconductor nanostructures because of this multimode excitation; however, the present method overcomes this difficulty by introducing an additional boundary condition. To avoid spurious solutions and enhance the precision, we propose a hybrid edge-nodal element formulation in which edge and nodal elements are employed to represent the transverse and longitudinal polarizations, respectively. We apply the developed method to the EM-field scattering and distributions of exciton polarizations of spherical and hexagonal-disk quantum dots.

Model of finite-momentum excitons driven by surface plasmons in photoexcited carbon nanotubes covered by gold metal films.

Optical spectra of finite-momentum excitons in carbon nanotubes with gold nanostructures are theoretically studied. A Green function method is developed for self-consistently solving Maxwell equations including the quantum-mechanical nonlocal response of the nanotubes and the local response of the nanostructures. Excitons with finite momenta in the axis direction in the nanotubes are effectively excited by localized electric fields due to surface plasmons in the gold nanostructures and counteract the surface plasmons through depolarization fields, showing the crucial self-consistency of these effects.

Exciton states and optical properties of carbon nanotubes.

Exciton states and related optical properties of a single-walled carbon nanotube are reviewed, primarily from a theoretical viewpoint. The energies and wavefunctions of excitons are discussed using a screened Hartree-Fock approximation with an effective-mass or k·p approximation. The close relationship between a long-range electron-hole exchange interaction and a depolarization effect is clarified. I discuss optical properties including the radiative lifetime of excitons, absorption spectra and radiation force. To describe these properties in a unified scheme, a self-consistent method is introduced for calculating the scattering light and induced current density due to excitons. I also briefly review experimental results on the Aharonov-Bohm effect in excitons and quasi-dark excitons excited by light polarized perpendicular to the tube axis.