Selecting wave function states in open quantum dots

We study how wave function scarring in an open quantum dot is influenced as the strength of its environmental coupling is varied and show evidence for groups of wave function scars that recur periodically with gate voltage. The precise form of these scars is found to evolve with gate voltage, which we discuss in terms of the properties of the semi-classical orbits that give rise to the scars. We also provide convincing experimental evidence for a correlation between the scars and the oscillations observed in the conductance when the gate voltage is varied.     

Confined states in two-dimensional flat elliptic quantum dots and elliptic quantum wires

The energy spectrum and corresponding wave functions of a flat quantum dot with elliptic symmetry are obtained exactly. A detailed study is made of the effect of ellipticity on the energy levels and the corresponding wave functions. The analytical behavior of the energy levels in certain limiting cases is obtained.     

Charged magneto-exciton states in semiconductor quantum dots

By embedding a layer of self-assembled quantum dots into a field-effect structure, we are able to control the exciton charge in a single dot. We present the results of photoluminescence experiments as a function of both charge and magnetic field. The results demonstrate a hierarchy of energy scales determined by quantization, the direct Coulomb interaction, the electron–electron exchange interaction, and the electron–hole exchange interaction. For excitons up to the triply charged exciton, the behavior can be understood from a model assuming discrete levels within the quantum dot. For the triply charged exciton, this is no longer the case. In a magnetic field, we discover a coherent interaction with the continuum states, the Landau levels associated with the wetting layer.     

Entanglement in S states of two-electron quantum dots with Coulomb impurities at the center

We study a system of two Coulombically interacting electrons in an external harmonic potential in the presence of an on-centre Coulomb impurity. Detailed results for the dependencies of the reduced von Neumann entropy on the control parameters of the system are provided for both the ground state and the triplet S states with the lowest energy. Among other features, it is found that in the weak confinement regime the entanglement is strongly affected by the presence of an acceptor impurity.     

Vertical quantum dots at high magnetic fields beyond the few-electron limit

We describe phenomena that can be studied in vertical quantum dot single electron transistors. Moving from the few-electron to the several- and many-electron regimes, features in the conductance peaks initially related to spin polarization evolve with magnetic field. This allows us to first probe the spin-flip region beyond the last single-particle crossing at low field, and then the formation and stability of the spin-polarized maximum density droplet at high field. According to a simple capacitance model, charge redistribution in the dot at higher magnetic fields is accompanied by abrupt changes in the area of the droplet.     

Electronic states and shapes of silicon quantum dots

A curviform surface breaks the symmetrical shape of silicon quantum dots on which some bonds can produce localized electronic states in the bandgap. The calculation results show that the bonding energy and electronic states of silicon quantum dots are different on various curved surfaces, for example, a Si-O-Si bridge bond on curved surface provides localized levels in bandgap and its bonding energy is shallower than that on the facet. The red-shifting ofthe photoluminescence spectrum on smaller silicon quantum dots can be explained by the curved surface effect. Experiments demonstrate that silicon quantum dots are activated for emission due to the localized levels provided by the curved surface effect.     

Electronic structure of three-dimensional quantum dots

We study the electronic structure of three-dimensional quantum dots using the Hartree-Fock approximation. The confining potential of the electrons in the quantum dot is assumed to be spatially isotropic and harmonic. For up to 40 interacting electrons the ground-state energies and ground-state wavefunctions are calculated at various interaction strengths. The quadrupole moments and electron densities in the quantum dot are computed. Hund's rule is confirmed and a shell structure is identified via the addition energies and the quadrupole moments. While most of the shell structure can be understood on the basis of the unperturbed non-interacting problem, the interplay of an avoided crossing and the Coulomb interaction results in an unexpected closed shell for 19 electrons. Received 5 November 2001 / Received in final form 12 November 2002 Published online 1st April 2003 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: vorrath@physnet.uni-hamburg.de     

Transport through quasi-degenerate states in coupled quantum dots

By means of a general method for treating mesoscopic systems with strong internal correlations, transport properties through a set of quasi-degenerate transitions in the interacting region, or active element (AE), are considered. It is shown that the behaviour of the AE drastically changes as the couplings to the contacts are varied from the strong to the weak coupling limit. These changes strongly influence the transport properties of the system, from a single increase of the current to a staircase form with unequally large steps. In the present study, kinematic interactions, non-equilibrium populations numbers and dependence on the bias voltage has been included in the treatment of the local properties of the AE. Analytical results for the equilibrium situation are presented as well as a derivation of the corresponding non-equilibrium quantities. Results from self-consistent numerical calculations of the considered case are presented.     

Substitutional impurity in the graphene quantum dots

The process of formation of the localized defect states due to substitutional impurity in sp²-bonded graphene quantum dot is considered using a simple tight-binding-type calculation. We took into account the interaction of the quantum dot atoms surrounding the substitutional impurity from the second row of elements. To saturate the external dangling sp² orbitals of the carbon additionally 18 hydrogen atoms were introduced. The chemical formula of the quantum dot is H₁₈C₅₁X, where X is the symbol of substitutional atom. The position of the localized levels is determined relative to the host-atoms (C) ε_p energies. We focused on the effect of substitutional doping by the B, N and O on the eigenstate energies and on the total energy change of the graphene dots including for O the effect of lattice distorsion. We conclude that B, N, and O can form stable substitutional defects in graphene quantum dot.     

Anomalous quantum Hall effect induced by nearby quantum dots

Transport measurements in high magnetic fields have been performed on two-dimensional electron system (2DES) separated by a thin barrier layer from a layer of InAs self-assembled quantum dots (QDs). Clear feature of quantum Hall effect was observed in spite of presence of QDs nearby 2DES. However, both magnetoresistance, ρ_xx, and Hall resistance, ρ_xy, are suppressed significantly only in the magnetic field range of filling factor in 2DES ν<1 and voltage applied on a front gate . The results indicate that the electron state in QDs induces spin-flip process in 2DES.     

Polaron effects on the refractive index changes in cylindrical quantum dots with parabolic potential

The effect of electron-LO-phonon interaction on refractive index changes (RICs) for cylindrical quantum dots (CQDs) with an applied electric field is theoretically investigated. Analytic forms of the linear and third-order nonlinear the RICs are obtained for a cylindrical QD by using compact-density-matrix approach and iterative method, and the numerical results are presented for a GaAs cylinder quantum dot. The results show that the RICs coefficient is greatly enhanced and the peak shift to the aspect of high energy when considering the influence of electron-LO-phonon interaction.     

Fano effect and Andreev bound states in T-shape double quantum dots

In this Letter, we investigate the transport through a T-shaped double quantum dot coupled to two normal metal leads left and right and a superconducting lead. Analytical expressions of Andreev transmission and local density of states of the system at zero temperature have been obtained. We study the role of the superconducting lead in the quantum interferometric features of the double quantum dot. We report for first time the Fano effect produced by Andreev bound states in a side quantum dot. Our results show that as a consequence of quantum interference and proximity effect, the transmission from normal to normal lead exhibits Fano resonances due to Andreev bound states. We find that this interference effect allows us to study the Andreev bound states in the changes in the conductance between two normal leads.     

Electronic structure of the p-shell in single, site-selected InAs/InP quantum dots

The spectroscopy of single InAs/InP quantum dots emitting close to 1.55 μm is described. The dots are produced using a nanotemplate deposition technique that allows precise, a priori control of quantum dot position and electronic configuration. The experimentally observed luminescence signal from the p-shell is composed of several lines. Using exact diagonalization calculations of the emission spectra we interpret the splittings between these lines in terms of Coulomb induced, many-body renormalization of the excitonic states and a template-induced shape asymmetry of the quantum dot.     

Capacitance fluctuations in quantum dots

We discuss fluctuations of the charging energy E_C and gate voltage spacings between Coulomb oscillation conductance peaks, as computed within spin density functional theory for a realistic GaAs–AlGaAs dot. We explicitly exhibit the fluctuations in the portion of the total free energy which incorporate the interaction between the dot and its surroundings. These variations in the dot capacitance show a dispersion which is typically greater than the dispersion of the total dot charging energy.     

Exact broken-symmetry states and Hartree–Fock solutions for quantum dots at high magnetic fields

Wigner molecules formed at high magnetic fields in circular and elliptic quantum dots are studied by exact diagonalization (ED) and unrestricted Hartree–Fock (UHF) methods with multicenter basis of displaced lowest Landau level wave functions. The broken symmetry states with semi-classical charge density constructed from superpositions of the ED solutions are compared to the UHF results. UHF overlooks the dependence of the few-electron wave functions on the actual relative positions of electrons localized in different charge puddles and partially compensates for this neglect by an exaggerated separation of charge islands which are more strongly localized than in the exact broken-symmetry states.     

Hydrogenic impurity states in wurtzite GaN/AlGaN coupled quantum dots

The ground-state binding energy of a hydrogenic donor impurity in wurtzite (WZ) GaN/AlGaN coupled quantum dots (QDs) is calculated by means of a variational method, considering the strong built-in electric fields caused by the piezoelectricity and spontaneous polarizations. The strong built-in electric fields induce an asymmetrical distribution of the ground-state binding energy with respect to the center of the coupled QDs. If the impurity is located at the low dot, the ground-state binding energy is insensitive to the interdot barrier width of WZ GaN/AlGaN coupled QDs.     

Effects of an electric field on the confined hydrogen impurity states in a spherical parabolic quantum dot

In this paper, we studied the effects of an electric field on a hydrogenic impurity confined in a spherical parabolic quantum dot using nondegenerate and degenerate perturbation methods. The binding energies of the ground and three low-excited states are calculated as a function of the confinement strength and as a function of the intensity of an applied electric field. Moreover, we computed the oscillator strength and the second-order nonlinear optical rectification coefficient based on the computed energies and wave functions. The results show that the electric and optical properties of hydrogenic impurity states are strongly affected by the confinement strength and the applied electric field.     

Optical properties of individual manganese-doped quantum dots

The magnetic state of a single magnetic ion (Mn²⁺) embedded in an individual quantum dot is optically probed using micro-spectroscopy. The fine structure of a confined exciton in the exchange field of a single Mn²⁺ ion (S=) is analyzed in detail. The exciton–Mn²⁺ exchange interaction shifts the energy of the exciton depending on the Mn²⁺ spin component and six emission lines are observed at zero magnetic field. The emission spectra of individual quantum dots containing a single magnetic Mn atom differ strongly from dot to dot. The differences are explained by the influence of the system geometry, specifically the in-plane asymmetry of the quantum dot and the position of the Mn atom. Depending on both these parameters, one has different characteristic emission features which either reveal or hide the spin state of the magnetic atom. The observed behavior in both zero field and under magnetic field can be explained quantitatively by the interplay between the exciton–Mn²⁺ exchange interaction (dependent on the Mn position) and the anisotropic part of the electron–hole exchange interaction (related to the asymmetry of the quantum dot).