Theory for Light-Matter Interaction in Semiconductor Quantum Dots

A microscopic theory is developed and applied to describe luminescence from semiconductor quantum dots (QDs). The radiative emission dynamics is studied by the investigation of time-resolved photoluminescence. Special emphasis is placed on the role of carrier correlations and the differences between QDs and atoms. From the most general form of the theory a laser model for QDs in microresonators is developed, which is the central achievement of this thesis. In this model semiconductor effects can be included in a consistent manner. Going beyond the rate equation limit, we calculate the first- and second-order correlation functions to characterize the laser threshold properties, which are, in the classical sense, no longer well defined in current state-of-the-art microcavity lasers with high spontaneous emission coupling into the laser mode. To underline the close connection to applications, all results are presented together with results from recent experiments. To gain a deeper understanding of the derived laser theory and of the difference between QDs and atoms, a detailed comparison with quantum-optical models is performed, namely with the rate equations, a master equation approach and the Liouville/von-Neumann equation for the full density matrix.