Excitonic wave packet dynamics in semiconductor photonic-crystal structures

Significant aspects of the light–matter interaction can be strongly modified in suitably designed systems consisting of semiconductor nanostructures and dielectric photonic crystals. To analyze such effects, a microscopic theory is presented, which is capable of describing the optoelectronic properties of such hybrid systems via a self-consistent solution of the dynamics of the optical field and the photoexcitations of the material. The theory is applied to investigate the local excitonic resonances, which arise as a consequence of the modified Coulomb interaction in the vicinity of a structured dielectric medium. The excitation of a coherent superposition of the spatially inhomogeneous optical transitions induces an intricate wave packet dynamics. In the presence of dephasing and relaxation processes, the coherent oscillations are damped and the photoexcited carriers relax into spatially inhomogeneous quasi-equilibrium distributions.