Binding energy of heavy excitons in spherical quantum dots under hydrostatic pressure

The binding energy of heavy hole excitons in a spherical GaAs-Ga(1-x)A(x)As quantum dot under isotropic hydrostatic pressure was calculated using the Hylleraas coordinate system and a variational approach within the approximation of the effective mass. The influences of hydrostatic pressure on the effective masses of the electron and the heavy hole, the dielectric constant and the conduction- and valence-band offsets between the well and the barriers are taken into account in the calculation. The binding energy is computed as a function of hydrostatic pressure, the dot sizes and the Al(x) concentration. The results show that the binding energy derived from exciton increases with the pressure, especially for small quantum dots. Also, we have found that the binding energy increases with the pressure and the concentration for a fixed quantum dot radius, which can be useful for technological applications. (C) 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim