Tuning the tunnel coupling of quantum dot molecules with longitudinal magnetic fields

We show that the energy splitting between the bonding and antibonding molecular states of holes in vertically stacked quantum dots can be tuned using longitudinal magnetic fields. With increasing field, the energy splitting first decreases down to zero and then to negative values, which implies a bonding-to-antibonding ground state transition. This effect is a consequence of the enhancement of the valence band spin-orbit interaction induced by the magnetic field, and it provides a flexible mechanism to switch the molecular ground state from bonding to antibonding.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figs; accepted by Applied Physics Letters. After it is published it will be found at http://apl.aip.org

The Role of Alternance Symmetry in Magnetoconductance

We show that the direction of coherent electron transport across a cyclic system of quantum dots or a cyclic molecule can be modulated by an external magnetic field if the cycle has an odd number of hopping sites, but the transport becomes completely symmetric if the number is even. These contrasting behaviors, which remain in the case of interacting electrons, are a consequence of the absence or presence of alternance symmetry in the system. These findings are relevant for the design of nanocircuits based on coupled quantum dots or molecular junctions.Comment: to be published in PR

Origin of two-hole triplet splitting in circular quantum dots

Recent photoluminescence spectra of positively charged excitons in InAs/GaAs quantum dots have revealed the existence of large splittings between the View the MathML sourcep-shell triplet sublevels of holes. We provide an intuitive explanation for their origin in terms of heavy hole-light hole coupling using Luttinger spinors. These splittings are present even in symmetric quantum dots at zero field and their magnitude can be tuned by the geometry of the dot. We show that the spin purity of the triplet drastically decreases with the aspect ratio, but that of the singlet ground state remains high

Excitons in core-only, core-shell and core-crown CdSe nanoplatelets: interplay between in-plane electron-hole correlation, spatial and dielectric confinement

Using semi-analytical models we calculate the energy, effective Bohr radius and radiative lifetime of neutral excitons confined in CdSe colloidal nanoplatelets (NPLs). The excitonic properties are largely governed by the electron-hole in-plane correlation, which in NPLs is enhanced by the quasi-two-dimensional motion and the dielectric mismatch with the organic environment. In NPLs with lateral size $L \gtrsim 20$ nm the exciton behavior is essentially that in a quantum well, with superradiance leading to exciton lifetimes of 1 ps or less, only limited by the NPL area. However, for $L < 20$ nm excitons enter an intermediate confinement regime, hence departing from the quantum well behavior. In heterostructured NPLs, different response is observed for core/shell and core/crown configurations. In the former, the strong vertical confinement limits separation of electrons and holes even for type-II band alignment. The exciton behavior is then similar to that in core-only NPL, albeit with weakened dielectric effects. In the latter, charge separation is also inefficient if band alignment is quasi-type-II (e.g. in CdSe/CdS), because electron-hole interaction drives both carriers into the core. However, it becomes very efficient for type-II alignment, for which we predict exciton lifetimes reaching $\mu s$.Comment: typographical errors fixed (with respect to v1 and PRB) in eqs. 9,12 and definition of overla

Symmetry induced hole-spin mixing in quantum dot molecules

We investigate theoretically the spin purity of single holes confined in vertically coupled GaAs/AlGaAs quantum dots (QDs) under longitudinal magnetic fields. A unique behavior is observed for triangular QDs, by which the spin is largely pure when the hole is in one of the dots, but it becomes strongly mixed when an electric field is used to drive it into molecular resonance. The spin admixture is due to the valence band spin-orbit interaction, which is greatly enhanced in C3h symmetry environments. The strong yet reversible electrical control of hole spin suggests that molecules with C3-symmetry QDs, like those obtained with [111] growth, can outperform the usual C2-symmetry QDs obtained with [001] growth for the development of scalable qubit architectures.Comment: 5-pages manuscript + supplementary information. Version to be published in PRB Rapid Communication

Characteristic molecular properties of one-electron double quantum rings under magnetic fields

The molecular states of conduction electrons in laterally coupled quantum rings are investigated theoretically. The states are shown to have a distinct magnetic field dependence, which gives rise to periodic fluctuations of the tunnel splitting and ring angular momentum in the vicinity of the ground state crossings. The origin of these effects can be traced back to the Aharonov-Bohm oscillations of the energy levels, along with the quantum mechanical tunneling between the rings. We propose a setup using double quantum rings which shows that Aharonov-Bohm effects can be observed even if the net magnetic flux trapped by the carriers is zero

A simple variational quantum Monte Carlo-effective mass approach for excitons and trions in quantum dots

A computational model is presented to calculate the ground state energy of neutral and charged excitons confined in semiconductor quantum dots. The model is based on the variational Quantum Monte Carlo method and effective mass Hamiltonians. Through an iterative Newton-Rhapson process, minimizing the local energy, and (optional) parallelization of random walkers, fast and accurate estimates of both confinement and Coulomb binding energies can be obtained in standard desktop computers. To illustrate the reach of the model, we provide Fortran programs and illustrative calculations for colloidal CdSe nanoplatelets with large lateral dimensions and dielectric confinement, where electronic correlations are strong. The results compare well with exact variational calculations and largely outperform configuration interaction calculations in computational efficienc

Magnetic field implementation in multiband k.p Hamiltonians of holes in semiconductor heterostructures

We propose an implementation of external homogeneous magnetic fields in k$\cdot$p Hamiltonians for holes in heterostructures, in which we made use of the minimal coupling prior to introduce the envelope function approximation. Illustrative calculations for holes in InGaAs quantum dot molecules show that the proposed Hamiltonian outperforms standard Luttinger model [Physical Review 102, 1030 (1956)] describing the experimentally observed magnetic response. The present implementation culminates our previous proposal [Phys. Rev. B 82, 155307 (2010)].Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, submitte

Nature and Control of Shakeup Processes in Colloidal Nanoplatelets

Recent experiments suggest that the photoluminescence line width of CdSe nanoplatelets (NPLs) and core/shell CdSe/CdS NPLs may be broadened by the presence of shakeup (SU) lines from negatively charged trions. We carry out a theoretical analysis, based on effective mass and configuration interaction (CI) simulations, to identify the physical conditions that enable such processes. We confirm that trions in colloidal NPLs are susceptible of presenting SU lines up to 1 order of magnitude stronger than in epitaxial quantum wells, stimulated by dielectric confinement. For these processes to take place, trions must be weakly bound to off-centered charge traps, which relax symmetry selection rules. Charges on the lateral sidewalls are particularly efficient to this end. Our simulations display a single strong SU replica in most instances, which agrees well with experiments on CdSe NPLs, but suggests that the multipeaked emission reported for core/shell CdSe/CdS NPLs must involve other factors beyond SU processes. We propose emission from a metastable spin triplet trion state may be responsible. Understanding the origin of SU processes may open paths to rational design of NPLs with narrower line width