Far-infrared and capacitance spectroscopy of self-assembled InAs quantum dots

We review a number of recent experiments which are probing ground state and excitations of few-electron systems in self-assembled InAs quantum dots. Far-infrared spectroscopy, together with local as well as large-scale capacitive probing allows for a detailed investigation of the different contributions to the many-particle spectrum in the dots. The influence of electron--electron interactions on the ground state and the excitations is discussed.