No Arabic abstract
Using the exactly solvable excitation spectrum of two-electron quantum dots with parabolic potential, we show that the inclusion of the vertical extension of the quantum dot provides a consistent description of the experimental findings of Nishi et al. [Phys.Rev.B75, 121301(R) (2007)]. We found that the second singlet-triplet transition in the ground state is a vanishing function of the lateral confinement in the three-dimensional case, while it always persists in the two-dimensional case. We show that a slight decrease of the lateral confinement leads to a formation of the Wigner molecule at low magnetic fields.
We present a thorough analysis of the electron density distribution (shape) of two electrons, confined in the three-dimensional harmonic oscillator potential, as a function of the perpendicular magnetic field.Explicit algebraic expressions are derived in terms of the systems parameters and the magnetic field strength to trace the shape transformations in the ground and low-lying excited states. We found that the interplay of the classical and quantum properties lead to a quantum shape transition from a lateral to a vertical localization of electrons in low-lying excited states at relatively strong Coulomb interaction with alteration of the magnetic field. In contrast, in that regime in the ground states the electrons form always a ring type distribution in the lateral plane. The analytical results demonstrate a good agreement with quantum numerical results near the transition point and at high magnetic field.
We investigate the ground-state energy and spin of disordered quantum dots using spin-density-functional theory. Fluctuations of addition energies (Coulomb-blockade peak spacings) do not scale with average addition energy but remain proportional to level spacing. With increasing interaction strength, the even-odd alternation of addition energies disappears, and the probability of non-minimal spin increases, but never exceeds 50%. Within a two-orbital model, we show that the off-diagonal Coulomb matrix elements help stabilize a ground state of minimal spin.
We consider an impurity with a spin degree of freedom coupled to a finite reservoir of non-interacting electrons, a system which may be realized by either a true impurity in a metallic nano-particle or a small quantum dot coupled to a large one. We show how the physics of such a spin impurity is revealed in the many-body spectrum of the entire finite-size system; in particular, the evolution of the spectrum with the strength of the impurity-reservoir coupling reflects the fundamental many-body correlations present. Explicit calculation in the strong and weak coupling limits shows that the spectrum and its evolution are sensitive to the nature of the impurity and the parity of electrons in the reservoir. The effect of the finite size spectrum on two experimental observables is considered. First, we propose an experimental setup in which the spectrum may be conveniently measured using tunneling spectroscopy. A rate equation calculation of the differential conductance suggests how the many-body spectral features may be observed. Second, the finite-temperature magnetic susceptibility is presented, both the impurity susceptibility and the local susceptibility. Extensive quantum Monte-Carlo calculations show that the local susceptibility deviates from its bulk scaling form. Nevertheless, for special assumptions about the reservoir -- the clean Kondo box model -- we demonstrate that finite-size scaling is recovered. Explicit numerical evaluations of these scaling functions are given, both for even and odd parity and for the canonical and grand-canonical ensembles.
This review article describes theoretical and experimental advances in using quantum dots as a system for studying impurity quantum phase transitions and the non-Fermi liquid behavior at the quantum critical point.
We report on finite bias spectroscopy measurements of the two-electron spectrum in a gate defined bilayer graphene (BLG) quantum dot for varying magnetic fields. The spin and valley degree of freedom in BLG give rise to multiplets of 6 orbital symmetric and 10 orbital anti-symmetric states. We find that orbital symmetric states are lower in energy and separated by $approx 0.4 - 0.8$ meV from orbital anti-symmetric states. The symmetric multiplet exhibits an additional energy splitting of its 6 states of $approx 0.15 - 0.5$ meV due to lattice scale interactions. The experimental observations are supported by theoretical calculations, which allow to determine that inter-valley scattering and current-current interaction constants are of the same magnitude in BLG.