Energy transfer from a semiconductor quantum dot to an organic matrix

We calculate the rate of Forster energy transfer from an excited semiconductor quantum dot to the surrounding organic matrix. We consider the transfer from the lowest as well as higher excited states in the dot in the limiting cases of strong and weak confinement and perform a variational calculation in the crossover region for the lowest excited state. According to our calculations, for II-VI type semiconductors (like CdSe) and strongly absorbing organics (like PTCDA) the energy transfer may occur on time scales of several tens of picoseconds for dipole-allowed transitions in the dot, which is significantly less than the quantum dot excitation lifetime in the absence of such transfer. We also consider the possible effect of the Forster transfer on carrier intraband relaxation.