  We investigate theoretically the spatial dependence of the linear absorption
spectra of single and coupled semiconductor quantum dots, where the strong
three-dimensional quantum confinement leads to an overall enhancement of
Coulomb interaction and, in turn, to a pronounced renormalization of the
excitonic properties. We show that -because of such Coulomb correlations and
the spatial interference of the exciton wavefunctions- unexpected spectral
features appear whose intensity depends on spatial resolution in a highly
non-monotonic way when the spatial resolution is comparable with the excitonic
Bohr radius. We finally discuss how the optical near-field properties of double
quantum dots are affected by their coupling.
