Optical properties of SOI waveguides functionalized with close-packed quantum dot films

It is shown that dipolar coupling between neighboring quantum dots enhances the absorption of light in close packed monolayers of colloidal quantum dots. Based on this concept, the experimentally determined losses in planarized waveguides coated by a quantum dot monolayer can be successfully simulated. These simulations rely on replacing the quantum dot layer by an effective medium with a dielectric function determined by dipolar coupling and use the dielectric constant of the quantum dot host medium as the only adjustable parameter. This leads to a generic approach for the simulation of optical materials including close packed quantum dot layers.