Addition Spectra of Quantum Dots:  the Role of Dielectric Mismatch

Using atomistic pseudopotential wave functions, we calculate the electron and hole addition energies and the quasi-particle gap of InAs quantum dots. We find that the addition energies and the quasi-particle gap depend strongly on the dielectric constant εout of the surrounding material, and that when εout is much smaller than the dielectric constant of the dot the electron−electron and hole−hole interactions are dominated by surface polarization effects. We predict the addition energies and the quasi-particle gap as a function of size and εout, and compare our results with recent single-dot tunneling spectroscopy experiments.