Direct coulomb and exchange interaction in artificial atoms

We determine contributions from the direct Coulomb and exchange interactions to the total interaction in artificial semiconductor atoms. We tune the relative strengths of the two interactions and measure them as a function of the number of confined electrons. The electrons tend to have parallel spins when they occupy nearly degenerate single-particle states. We use a magnetic field to adjust the single-particle-state degeneracy, and find that the spin configurations in an arbitrary magnetic field are well explained in terms of two-electron singlet and triplet states.     

Synchronization,zero-resistance states and rotating Wigner crystal

We show, in a framework of a classical nonequilibrium model, that rotational angles of electrons moving in two dimensions (2D) in a perpendicular magnetic field can be synchronized by an external microwave field whose frequency is close to the Larmor frequency. The synchronization eliminates collisions between electrons and thus creates a regime with zero diffusion corresponding to the zero-resistance states observed in experiments with high mobility 2D electron gas (2DEG). For long range Coulomb interactions electrons form a rotating hexagonal Wigner crystal. Possible relevance of this effect of synchronization-induced self-assembly for planetary rings is discussed.     

Circular Rydberg States of Atomic Hydrogen in an ArbitraryMagnetic Field

We report a theoretical scheme using a B-spline basis set to improve the poor computational accuracy of circular Rydberg states of hydrogen atoms in the intermediate magnetic field. This scheme can produce high accuracy energy levels and valid for an arbitrary magnetic field. Energy levels of hydrogen are presented for circular Rydberg states with azimuthal quantum numbers |m| = 10--70 as a function of magnetic field strengths ranging from zero to2.35
ⅹ10⁹ T. The variation of spatial distributions of electron probability densities with magnetic field strengths is discussed and competition between Coulomb and magnetic interactions is illustrated.     

Electronic structure of a deformable trimer with a coulomb interaction and a variable number of electrons

The electronic spectrum of a trimer with a variable number of electrons has been calculated in the Hubbard model by exact diagonalization. The dependences of the chemical potential shift, magnetic moment, and energy level splitting near the chemical potential on the magnetic field, Coulomb interaction between the electrons located at the vertices of the triangle, trimer deformation, and three-center interaction have been established. The removal of magnetic degeneracy in the trimer when the intersite Coulomb and three-center interactions are taken into account and the formation of a singlet pair of electrons under trimer deformation have been detected.     

Spin filters with Fano dots

We compute the zero bias conductance of electrons through a single ballistic channel weakly coupled to a side quantum dot with Coulomb interaction. In contrast to the standard setup which is designed to measure the transport through the dot, the channel conductance reveals Coulomb blockade dips rather then peaks due to the Fano-like backscattering. At zero temperature the Kondo effect leads to the formation of broad valleys of small conductance corresponding to an odd number of electrons on the dot. By applying a magnetic field in the dot region we find two dips corresponding to a total suppression in the conductance of spins up and down separated by an energy of the order of the Coulomb interaction. This provides a possibility of a perfect spin filter.Received: 6 November 2003, Published online: 2 April 2004PACS: 72.15.Qm Scattering mechanisms and Kondo effect - 73.23.Ad Ballistic transport - 72.25.-b Spin polarized transport     

Valley polarization in Si(100) at zero magnetic field

The valley splitting, which lifts the degeneracy of the lowest two valley states in a SiO(2)/Si(100)/SiO(2) quantum well, is examined through transport measurements. We demonstrate that the valley splitting can be observed directly as a step in the conductance defining a boundary between valley-unpolarized and -polarized regions. This persists to well above liquid helium temperature and shows no dependence on magnetic field, indicating that single-particle valley splitting and valley polarization exist in (100) silicon even at zero magnetic field.     

Band structure and atomic sum rules for X-ray dichroism

Corrections to the atomic orbital sum rule for circular magnetic X-ray dichroism in solids are derived using orthonormal LMTOs as a single-particle basis for electron band states. Received 4 September 2000     

Coulomb promotion of spin-dependent tunneling

We study transport of spin-polarized electrons through a magnetic single-electron transistor (SET) in the presence of an external magnetic field. Assuming the SET to have a nanometer size central island with a single-electron level we find that the interplay on the island between coherent spin-flip dynamics and Coulomb interactions can make the Coulomb correlations promote rather than suppress the current through the device. We find the criteria for this new phenomenon--Coulomb promotion of spin-dependent tunneling--to occur.     

Role of dynamic depolarization for the intersubband resonance in the localization regime

We investigate the electronic intraband absorption in quantum wells with a strong lateral random potential, realized for example by modulation doping with a thin spacer layer. In such systems, electrons become in-plane localized in isolated potential minima and behave like an inhomogeneous array of natural quantum dots. When excited with a coherent light field, the dots respond as individual oscillators, which are however coupled by dynamic dipole–dipole interactions. The absorption spectrum is then determined by the interplay of the single dot properties (related to the disorder potential) and the many-particle Coulomb interactions. Using a simple model for the single-particle states, we calculate the absorption spectrum as a function of the electron density. In the case of light polarized perpendicular to the layer, we find with increasing density a dramatic line narrowing (associated with a collective excitation of the electrons) and a depolarization blue shift. For in-plane polarized light, the peak is shifted to the red. Our theory also applies to far-infrared absorption experiments in artificial quantum dot arrays.     

Singlet–triplet oscillations and far-infrared spectrum of four-minima quantum-dot molecule

We study ground states and far-infrared spectra (FIR) of two electrons in four-minima quantum-dot molecule in magnetic field by exact diagonalization. Ground states consist of altering singlet and triplet states, whose frequency, as a function of magnetic field, increases with increasing dot–dot separation. When the Zeeman energy is included, only the two first singlet states remain as ground states. In the FIR spectra, we observe discontinuities due to crossing ground states. Non-circular symmetry induces anticrossings, and also an additional mode above ω₊ in the spin-triplet spectrum. In particular, we conclude that electron–electron interactions cause only minor changes to the FIR spectra and deviations from the Kohn modes result from the low-symmetry confinement potential.     

Antiferromagnetic order in doped hubbard model under the magnetic field

We investigate the effects of temperature and hole doping on the antiferromagnetic (AF) ground states by considering the system of electrons on a two dimensional square lattice under the external magnetic field. In the mean field calculation of Hubbard Hamiltonian we find out that the magnetic field suppresses the AF order in a unique manner for all parameter values ofT and δ. We obtained the phase diagram of AF order inT-δ plane as a function of Coulomb correlation strength and magnetic field. We find the reentrant behavior of AF order in both the absence and the presence of magnetic field.     

Eigenstates in quantum dots confined by an inhomogeneous magnetic field

We study the eigenstates in quantum dots in which electrons are confined by the application of an inhomogeneous perpendicular magnetic field, focusing on the effect that the specific details of the shape of confining field has on determining these states. In contrast to the edge state picture established in studies on circular dots, we find that dots with more irregular geometries show a more complicated behavior in the interior of the dot. In particular, we find that certain states show indications of having their amplitude enhanced along particular classical periodic orbits in the interior, a phenomenon known as ‘scarring’.     

Microscopic calculation of the magnetic field of neutron stars

Based on the Dirac equation describing an electron moving in a uniform and cylindrically symmetric magnetic field which may be the result of the self-consistent mean field of the electrons themselves in a neutron star, we have obtained the eigen solutions and the orbital magnetic moments of electrons in which each eigen orbital can be calculated. From the eigen energy spectrum we find that the lowest energy level is the highly degenerate orbitals with the quantum numbers pZ=0, n=0, and m≥0. At the ground state, the electrons fill the lowest eigen states to form many Landau magnetic cells and each cell is a circular disk with the radius λfree and the thickness λe, where λfree is the electron mean free path determined by Coulomb cross section and electron density and λe is the electron Compton wavelength. The magnetic moment of each cell and the number of cells in the neutron star are calculated, from which the total magnetic moment and magnetic field of the neutron star can be calculated. The results are compared with the observational data and the agreement is reasonable.     

Exact parent Hamiltonian for the quantum Hall states in a lattice

We study lattice models of charged particles in uniform magnetic fields. We show how longer range hopping can be engineered to produce a massively degenerate manifold of single-particle ground states with wave functions identical to those making up the lowest Landau level of continuum electrons in a magnetic field. We find that in the presence of local interactions, and at the appropriate filling factors, Laughlin's fractional quantum Hall wave function is an exact many-body ground state of our lattice model. The hopping matrix elements in our model fall off as a Gaussian, and when the flux per plaquette is small compared to the fundamental flux quantum one only needs to include nearest and next-nearest neighbor hoppings. We suggest how to realize this model using atoms in optical lattices, and describe observable consequences of the resulting fractional quantum Hall physics.     

Lifshitz-like argument for low-lying states in a strong magnetic field

Localization of an electron moving in two dimensions, submitted to a strong magnetic field and scattered by randomly distributed zero-range impurities is investigated. Considering the explicit expression for the density of states obtained by Brézin, Gross and Itzykson, the Lifshitz argument is adapted in order to analyze the unusual power-law behavior of the low energy spectrum. When the impurity density is smaller than the Landau degeneracy, typical configurations of disorder responsible for low energy states are identified as cluster of impurities of well defined form. This allows for an interpretation of low-lying states, localized around these clusters, whose size diverges logarithmically as the energy goes to zero. Received 5 January 2000     

Magnetic field effect on the density of states of a two-dimensional random system

The effect of the magnetic field on the single-particle density of states of a two-dimensional random system at finite temperatures is studied in the lowest order of a mutual interaction between electrons. We describe how the correction from the impurity-induced particle-particle correlation to the density of states is suppressed by the field.     

Biexcitons in artificial molecules with in-plane magnetic field

We theoretically investigate the effect of a magnetic field perpendicular to the tunneling direction on the ground-state properties of biexcitons in coupled quantum dots. The single-particle states are computed by numerically solving the 3D Scrödinger equation. The biexciton states are obtained by means of a configuration-interaction approach, which fully accounts for the intra- and inter-dot Coulomb correlations. We show that the biexciton ground state undergoes non-trivial transitions as a function of the applied magnetic field, which can be traced back to unexpected carrier localizations.     

Bosonization of coupled electron-phonon systems

We calculate the single-particle Green’s function of electrons that are coupled to acoustic phonons by means of higher dimensional bosonization. This non-perturbative method is not based on the assumption that the electronic system is a Fermi liquid. For isotropic threedimensional phonons we find that the long-range part of the Coulomb interaction cannot destabilize the Fermi liquid state, although for strong electron-phonon coupling the quasi-particle residue is small. We also show that Luttinger liquid behavior in three dimensions can be due to quasi-one-dimensional anisotropy in the electronic band structure or in the phonon frequencies.     

The mesoscopic chiral metal-insulator transition

Sharp localization transitions of chiral edge states in disordered quantum wires subject to a strong magnetic field are shown to be driven by crossovers from two-to one-dimensional localization of bulk states. As a result, the two-terminal conductance is found to exhibit discontinuous transitions at zero temperature between exactly integer plateau values and zero, reminiscent of first-order phase transitions. We discuss the corresponding phase diagram. The spin of the electrons is shown to result in a multitude of phases when the spin degeneracy is raised by the Zeeman energy. The width of conductance plateaus is found to depend sensitively on the spin flip rate 1/τ_s.