Abstract
We observed a sample of Blue Dwarf Galaxies in the Ks (2.2 μm) and Lα (3.7 μm) IR bands at the ESO VLT with ISAAC. The purpose of the observations was to study the population of young massive clusters and the conditions under which they are formed. The sample galaxies included: Tol 1924-416, Tol 35, Pox 36, UM 462, He 2-10, II Zw 40, Tol 3, NGC 1705, NGC 5408, IC 4662, NGC 5253. They were selected to have evidence for star formation and firm detection by IRAS. All galaxies observed turned to be very rich of young massive clusters in Ks. Only few clusters, about 8%, showed counterparts in Lα. Most L' sources can be associated to radio thermal sources, with the only exception of the NGC 1705's one. For two galaxies, NGC 5408 and IC 4662, we derived the cluster luminosity functions finding them consistent with a power law of index about -2. We compared the numbers and luminosities of the clusters with the star formation rate of the host galaxy and could not find any evidence of a relation.