Spontaneous emission of quantum dot excitons into surface plasmons in a nanowire

The spontaneous emission (SE) of quantum dot (QD) excitons into surface plasmons in a cylindrical nanowire is investigated theoretically. Maxwell's equations with appropriate boundary conditions are solved numerically to obtain the dispersion relations of surface plasmons. The SE rate of QD excitons is found to be greatly enhanced at certain values of the exciton bandgap. Application in generation of remote entangled states via superradiance is also pointed out and may be observable with current technology. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America