The optically-allowed transitions are between the ground state and any excited state, i, and the corresponding transition dipole matrix elements are denoted µ 1i /µ i1 . The parameters i and µ 1i /µ i1 , as well as lifetime parameters that enter into the Lindblad operator, are extracted from finite-difference timedomain (FDTD) simulations of the optical re- sponse of the CNPs. Observed absorption features in the FDTD simulations map directly onto the excitation energies, i , and the area under each absorption peak can be used to determine the transition dipole moments. Lastly, the half-width at half-maximum of each absorption peak yields relaxation rates, γ i1 , which enter into the Lindablad operator