Mode coupling and cavity–quantum-dot interactions in a fiber-coupled microdisk cavity

Abstract

A quantum master equation model for the interaction between a two-level system and whispering-gallery modes (WGMs) of a microdisk cavity is presented, with specific attention paid to current experiments involving a semiconductor quantum dot (QD) embedded in a fiber-coupled AlxGa1−xAs microdisk cavity. In standard single mode cavity QED, three important rates characterize the system: the QD-cavity coupling rate g, the cavity decay rate kappa, and the QD dephasing rate gamma[perpendicular]. A more accurate model of the microdisk cavity includes two additional features. The first is a second cavity mode that can couple to the QD, which for an ideal microdisk corresponds to a traveling wave WGM propagating counter to the first WGM. The second feature is a coupling between these two traveling wave WGMs, at a rate beta, due to backscattering caused by surface roughness that is present in fabricated devices. We consider the transmitted and reflected signals from the cavity for different parameter regimes of {g,beta,kappa,gamma[perpendicular]}. A result of this analysis is that even in the presence of negligible roughness-induced backscattering, a strongly coupled QD mediates coupling between the traveling wave WGMs, resulting in an enhanced effective coherent coupling rate g=sqrt(2)g0 corresponding to that of a standing wave WGM with an electric field maximum at the position of the QD. In addition, analysis of the second-order correlation function of the reflected signal from the cavity indicates that regions of strong photon antibunching or bunching may be present depending upon the strength of coupling of the QD to each of the cavity modes. Such intensity correlation information will likely be valuable in interpreting experimental measurements of a strongly coupled QD to a bimodal WGM cavity.