Polarization sensitive spectroscopy of charged quantum dots

We present an experimental and theoretical study of the polarized PL spectrum of single semiconductor quantum dots in various charge states. We compare our polarization sensitive spectral measurements with a novel many-carrier theoretical model. The model considers both the isotropic and anisotropic exchange interactions between all participating electron-hole pairs. We demonstrate that lines emanating from evenly charged states are linearly polarized. Their measured polarization direction does not necessarily coincide with the traditional crystallographic direction. It depends on the shells of the single carriers which participate in the recombination process.