Eur. Phys. J. B (2014) 87: 265
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2014-50305-0

Regular Article

Exciton related optical absorption in a spherical quantum dot

¹ Department of Physics, Yeditepe University, Kayısdagı, Atasehir, 34755 Istanbul, Turkey
² Department of Physics, Middle East Technical University, 06531 Ankara, Turkey

^a e-mail: vunal@yeditepe.edu.tr

Received: 12 May 2014
Received in final form: 30 September 2014
Published online: 10 November 2014

Abstract

An exciton in a spherical quantum dot is studied analytically within the effective mass approximation. A parabolic confinement under an electric field is considered. The linear and nonlinear optical absorption coefficients are calculated within the density matrix formalism. No assumptions are made about the strength of the confinement. It is shown how the competing mechanisms of the Coulomb interaction, the confinement and the applied static electric field affect the optical absorption.