Optical properties of excitons in quantum dots: diffraction of an electromagnetic plane wave by a spherical quantum dot Original Research Article

We show how to compute the optical spectra resulting from the scattering of a plane electromagnetic wave on a quantum dot (QD) in the region of the excitonic resonances. The method uses the microscopic calculation of quantum dot eigenfunctions and the macroscopic Stahlʹs density matrix approach to compute the electromagnetic field within and outside the QD, taking into account the coherence between the carriers and the electromagnetic wave. Numerical results are obtained for the case of GaAs/Ga1−xAlxAs QD. Oscillator strengths and lineshapes are shown to have a typical dependence on the QD radius, and an increase in the scattering intensities near resonance is found.