Optical absorption spectra of a quantum dot in a microcavity

Exact quantum electrodynamical results are obtained for a semiconductor quantum dot placed inside a microcavity of arbitrary photon leakage (kappa), and radiative (gamma) and nonradiative (gamma(c)) decay rates. Analytical results are obtained for the density matrix elements. The absorption spectra thus obtained for arbitrary values of kappa, gamma and gamma(c) exhibit the solid-state analogue of the vacuum Rabi splitting when the system decay parameters are much smaller than the quantum dot-cavity-field coupling parameter. Numerical estimates are made for samples of CdS and GaAs quantum dots of dimensions 19 Angstrom and 56 Angstrom, respectively. The results are in qualitative agreement with the experimental observations.