Near-field resonant energy transfer between spherical quantum dots

Non-radiative (Forster-type) energy transfer of an exciton between two quantum dots (QDs) plays an important role in artificial structures where semiconductor nanocrystal QDs play the role of building blocks. We theoretically study the effect of surrounding medium (e.g. dielectric substrate) on the transfer rate. Applying a simple model to describe the QDs, we demonstrate that the transfer rate can be strongly enhanced in the vicinity of a metal surface if the donor QD is excited in resonance with surface plasmons characteristic of this surface. Then the scaling law with the interdot distance becomes more complex than R-6 and the characteristic Forster radius can increase by an order of magnitude. We also show that transfer rate between two QDs is not exactly / R-6 even within the dipole-dipole approximation, in free space if the electron and hole in the dot are in the weak confinement regime.