A theory of the fine structure of correlated exciton states in self-assembled parabolic semiconductor quantum dots in a magnetic field perpendicular to the quantum dot plane is presented. The correlated exciton wave function is expanded in configurations consisting of products of electron and heavy-hole 2D harmonic oscillator states (HO) in a magnetic field and the electron spin $S_z=\pm 1/2$ and a heavy-hole spin ${\tau }_z=\pm 3/2$ states. Analytical expressions for the short- and long-range electron-hole exchange Coulomb interaction matrix elements are derived in the HO and spin basis for arbitrary magnetic field. This allows the incorporation of short- and long-range electron-hole exchange, direct electron-hole interaction, and quantum dot anisotropy in the exact diagonalization of the exciton Hamiltonian. The fine structure of ground and excited correlated exciton states as a function of a number of confined shells, quantum dot anisotropy, and magnetic field is obtained using exact diagonalization of the many-body Hamiltonian. The effects of correlations are shown to significantly affect the energy splitting of the two bright exciton states.

• Received 11 April 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.84.245314