Inter-Coulombic Decay in Laterally Arranged Quantum Dots Controlled by Polarized Lasers

Abstract

The inter-Coulombic decay (ICD) process, where one electronically excited species relaxes while the neighboring one is concomitantly ionized, has been recently discovered likewise in atomic, molecular, biological, and nanostructured systems. Any theoretical prediction of it relies strongly on an accurate treatment of the involved resonance and continuum states. Here, we describe laser-induced ICD in quantum dots with electron dynamics at a multiconfiguration time-dependent Hartree–Fock level for the first time for a two-dimensional continuum, such that ICD control with laser polarization is within reach. This explicit electron dynamics is possible through the efficient Multigrid POTFIT tensor decomposition of the Coulomb interaction on a grid. Conclusively, ICD turns out to be much faster in laterally arranged self-assembled or lithographic quantum dots connected to a two-dimensional wetting-layer continuum than in previously investigated dots in nanowires.