Indirect coupling between spins in semiconductor quantum dots

The optically induced indirect exchange interaction between spins in two quantum dots is investigated theoretically. We present a microscopic formulation of the interaction between the localized spin and the itinerant carriers including the effects of correlation, using a set of canonical transformations. Correlation effects are found to be of comparable magnitude as the direct exchange. We give quantitative results for realistic quantum dot geometries and find the largest couplings for one dimensional systems.