Engineering the optical transitions of self-assembled quantum dots

In this paper, we report a fast effective mass model for accurately calculating the bound states and optical transitions of self-assembled quantum dots. The model includes the atomistic strain effects, namely, the strain deformation of the band edges, and strain modification of the effective masses. The explicit inclusion of strain effects in the picture has significantly improved the effective mass model results. For strain calculations, we have found that atomistic strain depends solely on the aspect ratio of the quantum dot, and it has been calculated and reported here for a wide range of quantum dot aspect ratios. Following this sole dependence on the aspect ratio; The deformation theory has been used to include the strain deformation of the band edges. Density function theory has been used to study the effect of strain on the electron and hole effective masses. The proposed effective mass model have an accuracy that is close to full atomistic simulation but with no computational cost.