This work identifies crystal-field splitting and spontaneous polarization as key ingredients controlling the lowest hole states in InP crystal-phase quantum dots. It also emphasizes that additional electrostatic terms must be treated on equal footing with electron–hole interaction in atomistic excitonic calculations.
Keywords: crystal-phase quantum dots
Main result: crystal-field splitting and spontaneous polarization strongly modify the low-energy hole spectrum and optical transitions in crystal-phase quantum dots. Reliable modeling requires incorporating these effects directly into the many-body calculation.