Gain Saturation of Encapsulated CdTe-Ag Quantum Dot Composite in SiO₂

Abstract

Amplified spontaneous emission of CdTe and CdTe-Ag quantum dot composites were compared for increasing the optical stripe length, whereby optical gain coefficients for various emission wavelengths were obtained. In the case of CdTe-Ag nanoparticle composites, we observed that plasmonic coupling causes both optical enhancement and quenching at different wavelengths, where the amplified spontaneous emission intensity becomes enhanced at short wavelengths but suppressed at long wavelengths (>600 nm). To analyze the logistic stripe length dependence of amplified spontaneous emission intensity, we used a differential method to obtain the gain coefficient beyond the amplification range. This analysis enabled us to find the limit of the commonly used fitting method in terms of a threshold length and a saturation length, where amplification begins and saturation ends, respectively.

Keywords

• quantum dot composite
• optical gain
• logistic curve
• gain saturation
• plasmonic effect