Tuning the cross-gap transition energy of a quantum dot by uniaxial stress

We show that a piezoelectric actuator can be used to apply uniaxial stress to a layer of self-assembled quantum dots. The applied stress leads to a change of the quantum dot's ground state exciton energy by up to a few hundred µ eV. This approach allows the possibility of an in situ and continuous tuning of the stress at temperatures down to 4 K and offers an alternative to tuning by temperature and Stark effect. We measure the relative change in the charging energy to the n-doped back contact by capacitance and the change in the exciton energy by photoluminescence. By tuning the uniaxial stress we are able to perform reflection spectroscopy on a single dot. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.