Magic numbers in vertically coupled quantum dots

A coupled quantum dot system has been studied by numerical diagonalization of the Hamiltonian. Discontinuous ground-state transitions induced by an external magnetic field have been predicted. Series of magic numbers of angular momentum which minimize the ground-state electron-electron interaction energy have been discovered. Theoretical explanations derived from the first principles have been formulated. Received: 13 July 1997 / Accepted: 7 October 1997     

Optical properties of modulation-doped InGaAs vertically coupled quantum dots

Optical spectroscopy including photoluminescence, electroluminescence, photocurrent, and differential absorption, have been investigated for the triple-layer InGaAs vertically coupled quantum dots (VCQDs) by adding modulation doping (MD) in the 5 nm GaAs spacer layers. In addition to the QDs fundamental and excited transitions, a coupled-state transition is observed for the VCQDs. For the VCQDs of p-type MD, the optical transitions at ground state and coupled state are enhanced by the improvement of hole capture for the valence subbands. For the VCQDs of n-type MD, the main absorption change occurs at the coupled state, consistent with the dominant emission peak observed in EL spectra.     

Large nuclear overhauser fields detected in vertically coupled double quantum dots

We report the electrical induction and detection of dynamic nuclear polarization in the spin-blockade regime of double GaAs vertical quantum dots. The nuclear Overhauser field measurement relies on bias voltage control of the interdot spin exchange coupling and measurement of dc current at variable external magnetic fields. The largest Overhauser field observed was about 4 T, corresponding to a nuclear polarization approximately 40% for the electronic g factor typical of these devices, |g*| approximately 0.25. A phenomenological model is proposed to explain these observations.     

Investigation of excitation energies and Hund's rule in open shell quantum dots by diffusion Monte Carlo

We use diffusion Monte Carlo to study the ground state, the low-lying excitation spectrum and the spin densities of circular quantum dots with parabolic radial potentials containing N = 16 and N = 24 electrons, each having four open-shell electrons and compare the results to those obtained from Hartree-Fock (HF) and density functional local spin density approximation (LSDA) calculations. We find that Hund's first rule is obeyed in both cases and that neither HF nor LSDA correctly predict the ordering of the energy levels. Received 20 November 2001 and Received in final form 20 February 2002 Published online 6 June 2002     

Radiation characteristics of injection lasers based on vertically coupled quantum dots

We have studied injection lasers based on InGaAs/GaAs vertically coupled quantum dots (QD) grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The threshold current density decreases by one order of magnitude down to 90 A cm⁻²(300 K) with an increase of the number of QD stacks (N) up to 10. ForN≥ 3 lasing occurs via the QD ground state up to room temperature. Differential efficiency increases withNup to 50%. No change in range of high temperature stability of threshold current density (J_th) was observed, while the characteristic temperature (T₀) measured at 300 K increases from 60 to 120 K. Using InGaAs-AlGaAs QD with higher localization energy allowed us to decreaseJ_thdown to 60 A cm⁻²and to increase the differential efficiency up to 70%.     

The microstructure of vertically coupled quantum dots ensembles by EXAFS spectroscopy

The microstructure of samples containing Ge/Si, GaN/AlN, and InAs/AlAs (Ge, GaN, and InAs quantum dots (QDs) in the Si, AlN, and AlAs matrices, respectively) multilayer heterostructures has been investigated by EXAFS spectroscopy. The effect of the effective thicknesses of Si (or AlN) barrier layers, number of Ge (or GaN) layers in a sandwich, and annealing temperature on the size and shape of Ge (or GaN) clusters, interfacial diffusion in these systems, and formation of three-dimensional ordered ensembles of QDs has been established.     

Anomalous Stark shifts in single vertically coupled pairs of InGaAs quantum dots

Vertically coupled Stranski Krastanow quantum dots (QDs) are predicted to exhibit strong tunnelling interactions that lead to the formation of hybridised states. We report the results of investigations into single pairs of coupled QDs in the presence of an electric field that is able to bring individual carrier levels into resonance and to investigate the Stark shift properties of the excitons present. Pronounced changes in the Stark shift behaviour of exciton features are identified and attributed to the significant redistribution of the carrier wavefunctions as resonance between two QDs is achieved. At low electric fields coherent tunnelling between the two QD ground states is identified from the change in sign of the permanent dipole moment and dramatic increase of the electron polarisability, and at higher electric fields a distortion of the Stark shift is attributed to a coherent tunnelling effect between the ground state of the upper QD and the excited state of the lower QD.     

Electronic structure of asymmetric vertically coupled InAs/GaAs quantum dots

In this paper, the electronic structure of an asymmetric self-assembled vertically coupled quantum dots heterostructure has been investigated. The structure consists of two ellipsoidal quantum dot (QDs) caps made with InAs embedded in a wetting layer InAs and surrounded by GaAs. Using the strain dependent k·p theory, the energy of the two lowest states of a single electron/hole which is confined within the coupled QD structure has been calculated. As a result, it can be estimated the energy gap for different geometry parameters and for tuning the external magnetic field. The numerical results show that the energy gap is very sensitive to the size asymmetry of the structure and to the small separation distance of the dots but less sensitive to the existence of an external magnetic field and large interdot distance.     

Control of vertically coupled InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots with electric fields

Controllable interactions that couple quantum dots are a key requirement in the search for scalable solid state implementations for quantum information technology. From optical studies of excitons and corresponding calculations, we demonstrate that an electric field on vertically coupled pairs of In(0.6)Ga(0.4)As/GaAs quantum dots controls the mixing of the exciton states on the two dots and also provides controllable coupling between carriers in the dots.     

Quantum entanglement transition in vertically coupled two single-electron quantum dots with charged impurity

Effects of a charged impurity on the ground state of two vertically coupled identical single-electron quantum dots with and without applied magnetic field are investigated. In the absence of the magnetic field, the investigations of the charged impurity effect on the quantum entanglement (QE) in some low-lying states are carried out. It is found that, both the positive charged impurity (PCI) and the negative charged impurity (NCI)reduce the QE in the low-lying states under consideration except that the QE in the ground state is enhanced by the NCI. Additionally, in the domain of B from 0 Tesla to 15 Tesla, the ground state energy E, the ground state angular momentum L and the ground state QE entropy S are worked out. As far as the ground state are concerned, the PCI (NCI) blocks (induces) the angular momentum phase transition and the QE phase transition besides the known fact (i. e., the PCI/NCI decreases/increases the energy) in the magnetic field.     

Hole states in artificial molecules formed by vertically coupled Ge/Si quantum dots

In the tight binding approximation, the spatial configuration of the ground state and the binding energy of a hole in a “diatomic” artificial molecule formed by vertically coupled Ge/Si(001) quantum dots are studied. The inhomogeneous spatial distribution of elastic strain arising in the medium due to the lattice mismatch between Ge and Si is taken into account. The strain is calculated using the valence-force-field model with a Keating interatomic potential. The formation of the hole states is shown to be determined by the competition of two processes: the appearance of a common hole due to the overlapping of “atomic” wavefunctions and the appearance of asymmetry in the potential energy of a hole in the two quantum dots because of the superposition of the elastic strain fields from the vertically aligned Ge nanoclusters. When the thickness of the Si layer separating the Ge dots (t _Si) is greater than 2.3 nm, the binding energy of a hole in the ground state of the two-dot system proves to be lower than the ionization energy of a single quantum dot because of the partial elastic stress relaxation due to the coupling of the quantum dots and due to the decrease in the depth of the potential well for holes. For the values of the parameter t _Si, an intermediate region is revealed, where the covalent molecular bond fails and the hole is localized in one of the two quantum dots, namely, in the dot characterized by the highest strain values.     

Antibonding ground state of holes in double vertically coupled Ge/Si quantum dots

The existence of the antibonding ground state of holes in artificial molecules, which are formed by the vertically coupled Ge/Si quantum dots, has been proved experimentally. This phenomenon is absent in natural molecules and double quantum dots containing electrons. It is a consequence of spin-orbit interaction and deformation effects in the valence band of vertically aligned quantum dots.     

Electronic phase diagrams of carriers in self-assembled quantum dots: violation of Hund's rule and the Aufbau principle for holes

We study the ground-state orbital and spin configurations of up to six electrons or holes loaded into self-assembled quantum dots. We use a general phase-diagram approach constructed from single-particle pseudopotential and many-particle configuration interaction methods. The predicted hole charging energies agree with recent charging experiments, but offer a different interpretation: we find that while the charging of electrons follows both Hund's rule and the Aufbau principle, the charging of holes follows a nontrivial charging pattern which violates both the Aufbau principle and Hund's rule.     

Excitons in coupled quantum dots

Properties of excitons in vertically coupled GaAs/AlGaAs quantum dots were investigated using the variational method within the envelope function and effective mass approximations. It was found that when the thickness of the spacer layer becomes less than about one exciton Bohr radius, both the exciton binding energy and the fundamental optical transition energy are reduced compared to those in isolated quantum dots. This is a result of increased space extension of exciton due to the penetration of carrier wave functions into the spacer layer and corresponding reduction in confinement energy which dominates over the Coulomb interaction between the electron and the hole.     

Disappearance of quantum chaos in coupled chaotic quantum dots

Statistical properties of the single electron levels confined in the semiconductor (InAs/GaAs, Si/SiO₂) double quantum dots (DQDs) are considered. We demonstrate that in the electronically coupled chaotic quantum dots the chaos with its level repulsion disappears and the nearest neighbor level statistics becomes Poissonian. This result is discussed in the light of the recently predicted “huge conductance peak” by R.S. Whitney et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 102 (2009) 186802] in the mirror symmetric DQDs.     

垂直耦合自组织InAs双量子点中激子能的计算

在有效质量近似条件下研究了垂直耦合的自组织InAs/GaAs量子点的激子态.在绝热近似条件下，采用传递矩阵方法计算了电子和空穴的能谱.通过哈密顿量矩阵的对角化，对电子和空穴间的库仑相互作用进行了精确处理.讨论了两量子点间的垂直距离对激子基态能的影响.从基态波函数概率分布的角度，讨论了激子的束缚能.计算了重空穴和轻空穴激子的基态能随外部垂直磁场变化的函数关系.计算了量子点大小（量子点半径）对激子能的影响. 关键词： 量子点 激子 对角化     

Two-dimensional probe absorption in coupled quantum dots

We investigate the two-dimensional (2D) probe absorption in coupled quantum dots. It is found that, due to the position-dependent quantum interference effect, the 2D optical absorption spectrum can be easily controlled via adjusting the system parameters. Thus, our scheme may provide some technological applications in solid-state quantum communication.