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Front Cover: On the interpretation of wave function overlaps in quantum dots (Phys. Status Solidi B 4/2011)
Author(s) -
Stobbe Søren,
Hvam Jørn M.,
Lodahl Peter
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
physica status solidi (b)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1521-3951
pISSN - 0370-1972
DOI - 10.1002/pssb.201190010
Subject(s) - wave function , interpretation (philosophy) , quantum dot , cover (algebra) , physics , electron , graph , quantum , quantum mechanics , function (biology) , statistical physics , mathematics , combinatorics , computer science , engineering , mechanical engineering , evolutionary biology , biology , programming language
The overlap between electron and hole wave functions is a key parameter for quantum dots since it determines the oscillator strength and hence the spontaneous emission rate. A common and intuitive interpretation is that the electron and the hole must coincide spatially to recombine. Surprisingly, on pp. 855–858 of this issue, Stobbe, Hvam, and Lodahl show that this interpretation is not correct even loosely speaking. The cover illustration shows the electron (blue) and hole (red) wave functions for various quantum dot sizes (small, medium and large). This leads directly to the overlap integral (upper graph), which is remarkably different from the overlap probability (below) and implies that the oscillator strength is maximum when the overlap probability vanishes. These considerations lead to qualitative predictions, which agree with recent experiments and numerical calculations.