Luminescence spectra of quantum dots in microcavities

The physics of strong light-matter coupling of a quantum dot in a microcavity is described at its most fundamental level, that of the Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian. Dissipation, dephasing and incoherent excitation are included in the Lindblad form to account for the most important experimental degrees of freedom. We focus on the photoluminescence emission and elucidate the complexity that can arise from the delicate interplay of pumping and decay. A unified picture is presented of several regimes of excitation describing spontaneous emission, quantum nonlinearities and lasing. The theoretical findings are fully supported by experimental observations when systems with sufficiently high figures of merit are within reach.