Microscopic theory of phonon-induced effects on semiconductor quantum dot decay dynamics in cavity QED

We investigate the influence of the electron-phonon interaction on the decay dynamics of a quantum dot coupled to an optical microcavity. We show that the electron-phonon interaction has important consequences on the dynamics, especially when the quantum dot and cavity are tuned out of resonance, in which case the phonons may add or remove energy leading to an effective non-resonant coupling between quantum dot and cavity. Furthermore, we derive approximate analytical expressions for the quantum dot decay rate, applicable when the cavity can be adiabatically eliminated. The expressions lead to a clear interpretation of the physics and emphasize the important role played by the effective phonon density, describing the availability of phonons for scattering, in quantum dot decay dynamics. Based on the analytical expressions, we present the parameter regimes where phonon effects are expected to be important. Also, we include all technical developments in appendixes.