Inter-Sublevel Transitions in Quantum Dots and Device Applications

Transitions of carriers (electrons or holes) in quantum dots (QDs) between two confined states belonging to the same band are called inter-sublevel (ISL) transitions. The investigation of optical ISL transitions, which take place in the mid- (MIR) or far-infrared (FIR) wavelength range, is of particular interest, since confinement energies and the spatial symmetry of the envelope wave functions can be directly measured. Since ISL transitions are observable also in absence of spectator charges in the QDs, results may differ substantially from those obtained by interband experiments as photoluminescence (PL) and PL excitation (PLE) (cf. Chap. 10).