Shih et al. Nanoscale Research Letters 2011, 6:409 http://www.nanoscalereslett.com/content/6/1/409 electron-hole levels and low energetic LA phonon scattering. Acknowledgements This work was supported by the National Science Council of Republic of China under contract No. NSC 96-2112-M-009-024-MY3 and the MOE ATU program. Author details 1Department of Applied Chemistry, National Chiao Tung University, 1001 Da Hsueh Rd., Hsinchu, 30010 Taiwan 2Department of Electronics Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, 1001 Da Hsueh Rd., Hsinchu, 30010 Taiwan 3Institute of Nanoscience, National Chung Hsing University, 250 Kuo Kuang Rd., Taichung 402, Taiwan Authors’ contributions CI carried out most of the experiments and calculations. CH and CP provided the QD samples. SC drafted the figures. Alex provided the software for carrying out the calculations. TC and YW helped with the low temperature-high magnetic field experiments. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. 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