The design of electrically driven quantum dot devices for quantum optical applications asks for modeling approaches combining classical device physics with quantum mechanics. We connect the well-established fields of semi-classical semiconductor tran
sport theory and the theory of open quantum systems to meet this requirement. By coupling the van Roosbroeck system with a quantum master equation in Lindblad form, we introduce a new hybrid quantum-classical modeling approach, which provides a comprehensive description of quantum dot devices on multiple scales: It enables the calculation of quantum optical figures of merit and the spatially resolved simulation of the current flow in realistic semiconductor device geometries in a unified way. We construct the interface between both theories in such a way, that the resulting hybrid system obeys the fundamental axioms of (non-)equilibrium thermodynamics. We show that our approach guarantees the conservation of charge, consistency with the thermodynamic equilibrium and the second law of thermodynamics. The feasibility of the approach is demonstrated by numerical simulations of an electrically driven single-photon source based on a single quantum dot in the stationary and transient operation regime.
We show that all Lindblad operators (i.e. generators of quantum semigroups) on a finite-dimensional Hilbert space satisfying the detailed balance condition with respect to the thermal equilibrium state can be written as a gradient system with respect
to the relative entropy. We discuss also thermodynamically consistent couplings to macroscopic systems, either as damped Hamiltonian systems with constant temperature or as GENERIC systems. In particular we discuss the coupling of a quantum dot coupled to macroscopic charge carriers.
