Spectroscopy of excitonic Zeeman levels in single quantum dots

Fully confined excitons are investigated in natural quantum dots, which are formed by well-width fluctuations in GaAs/AlAs coupled quantum-well structures. In magnetooptic experiments a population inversion of the Zeeman split levels in the quantum dots is found under the condition of charge injection from the AlAs X-point state. This new phenomenon is explained in terms of spin thermalization in the intermediate indirect exciton state and subsequent tunnelling into the direct quantum-dot state. Population inversion is thereby caused by the associated sign reversal of the effective exciton g-factor.