Single-electron charging in quantum dots with large dielectric mismatch - art. no. 045310

Semiconductor quantum dots characterized by a strong dielectric mismatch wi th their environment are studied theoretically through direct diagonalizati on of the many-body Hamiltonian. The enhancement of the electron-electron C oulumb interaction, arising from polarization effects, is found to induce a strong increase in addition energies with increasing dielectric mismatch. For large dielectric mismatch, the excited many-body states can undergo rec onstructions as the dot is filled with carriers even in the absence of exte rnal magnetic fields.