A study of an exciton in a quantum dot with Woods–Saxon potential

A theoretical study of an exciton confined in a quantum dot with the Woods–Saxon potential is presented. The great advantage of our methodology is that it enables confinement regimes by varying two parameters in the model potential. Calculations are made by using the method of the numerical diagonalization of the Hamiltonian matrix within the effective-mass approximation. The binding energies of the ground (L=0$L=0$) and first excited (L=1$L=1$) states are obtained as functions of the dot radius. Based on the computed energies and wave functions, the linear, the third-order nonlinear and the total optical absorption coefficients have been examined between the ground and the first excited states. The results are presented as a function of the incident photon energy for the different values of the dot radius and the barrier slope. It is found that the binding energy and the optical properties of the excitons in a quantum dot are strongly affected by the dot radius and the barrier slope of the confinement potential.     

A narrow-line-width external cavity quantum dot laser for high-resolution spectroscopy in the near-infrared and yellow spectral ranges

We demonstrate a diode laser system which is suitable for high-resolution spectroscopy in the 1.2 μm and yellow spectral ranges. It is based on a two-facet quantum dot chip in a Littrow-type external cavity configuration. The laser is tunable in the range 1125–1280 nm, with an output power of more than 200 mW, and exhibits a free-running line width of 200 kHz. Amplitude and frequency noise were characterized, including the dependence of the frequency noise on the cavity length. Frequency stabilization to a high-finesse reference cavity is demonstrated, whereby the line width was reduced to approx. 30 kHz. Using a femtosecond frequency comb, the residual frequency instability was determined and found to be below 300 Hz on the time scales 1–300 s. Yellow light (>3 mW) at 578 nm was generated by frequency doubling in an enhancement cavity containing a PPLN crystal. The source has potential application for precision spectroscopy of ultra-cold Yb atoms and cold molecular hydrogen ions.     

A numerical method for fully resolved simulation (FRS) of rigid particle–flow interactions in complex flows

A fictitious-domain based formulation for fully resolved simulations of arbitrary shaped, freely moving rigid particles in unsteady flows is presented. The entire fluid–particle domain is assumed to be an incompressible, but variable density, fluid. The numerical method is based on a finite-volume approach on a co-located, Cartesian grid together with a fractional step method for variable density, low-Mach number flows. The flow inside the fluid region is constrained to be divergence-free for an incompressible fluid, whereas the flow inside the particle domain is constrained to undergo rigid body motion. In this approach, the rigid body motion constraint is imposed by avoiding the explicit calculation of distributed Lagrange multipliers and is based upon the formulation developed by Patankar [N. Patankar, A formulation for fast computations of rigid particulate flows, Center for Turbulence Research Annual Research Briefs 2001 (2001) 185–196]. The rigidity constraint is imposed and the rigid body motion (translation and rotational velocity fields) is obtained directly in the context of a two-stage fractional step scheme. The numerical approach is applied to both imposed particle motion and fluid–particle interaction problems involving freely moving particles. Grid and time-step convergence studies are performed to evaluate the accuracy of the approach. Finally, simulation of rigid particles in a decaying isotropic turbulent flow is performed to study the feasibility of simulations of particle-laden turbulent flows.