Semiconductor Quantum Dots

Book excerpt: Semiconductor Quantum Dots presents an overview of the background and recent developments in the rapidly growing field of ultrasmall semiconductor microcrystallites, in which the carrier confinement is sufficiently strong to allow only quantized states of the electrons and holes. The main emphasis of this book is the theoretical analysis of the confinement induced modifications of the optical and electronic properties of quantum dots in comparison with extended materials. The book develops the theoretical background material for the analysis of carrier quantum-confinement effects, introduces the different confinement regimes for relative or center-of-mass motion quantization of the electron-hole-pairs, and gives an overview of the best approximation schemes for each regime. A detailed discussion of the carrier states in quantum dots is presented and surface polarization instabilities are analyzed, leading to the self-trapping of carriers near the surface of the dots. The influence of spin-orbit coupling on the quantum-confined carrier states is discussed. The linear and nonlinear optical properties of small and large quantum dots are studied in detail and the influence of the quantum-dot size distribution in many realistic samples is outlined. Phonons in quantum dots as well as the influence of external electric or magnetic fields are also discussed. Last but not least the recent developments dealing with regular systems of quantum dots are also reviewed. All things included, this is an important piece of work on semiconductor quantum dots not to be dismissed by serious researchers and physicists.