Excitonic absorption in gate controlled graphene quantum dots

We present a theory of excitonic processes in gate controlled graphene quantum dots. The dependence of the energy gap on shape, size and edge for graphene quantum dots with up to a million atoms is predicted. Using a combination of tight-binding, Hartree-Fock and configuration interaction methods, we show that triangular graphene quantum dots with zigzag edges exhibit optical transitions simultaneously in the THz, visible and UV spectral ranges, determined by strong electron-electron and excitonic interactions. The relationship between optical properties and finite magnetic moment and charge density controlled by an external gate is predicted.Comment: ~4 pages, 4 figure

Electronic shells of Dirac fermions in graphene quantum rings in a magnetic field

We present results of tight binding calculations demonstrating existence of degenerate electronic shells of Dirac Fermions in narrow, charge neutral graphene quantum rings. We predict removal of degeneracy with finite magnetic field. We show, using a combination of tight binding and configuration interaction methods, that by filling a graphene ring with additional electrons this carbon based structure with half-filled shell acquires a finite magnetic moment.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

An Anderson-Fano Resonance and Shake-Up Processes in the Magneto-Photoluminescence of a Two-Dimensional Electron System

We report an anomalous doublet structure and low-energy satellite in the magneto-photoluminescence spectra of a two-dimensional electron system. The doublet structure moves to higher energy with increasing magnetic field and is most prominent at odd filling factors 5 and 3. The lower-energy satellite peak tunes to lower energy for increasing magnetic field between filling factor 6 and 2. These features occur at energies below the fundamental band of recombination originating from the lowest Landau level and display striking magnetic field and temperature dependence that indicates a many-body origin. Drawing on a recent theoretical description of Hawrylak and Potemski, we show that distinct mechanisms are responsible for each feature.Comment: 14 pages including 5 figures. To appear in the April 15th edition of Phy. Rev. B. rapid com

Electronic properties of gated triangular graphene quantum dots: Magnetism, correlations, and geometrical effects

We present a theory of electronic properties of gated triangular graphene quantum dots with zigzag edges as a function of size and carrier density. We focus on electronic correlations, spin and geometrical effects using a combination of atomistic tight-binding, Hartree-Fock and configuration interaction methods (TB+HF+CI) including long range Coulomb interactions. The single particle energy spectrum of triangular dots with zigzag edges exhibits a degenerate shell at the Fermi level with a degeneracy N_{edge} proportional to the edge size. We determine the effect of the electron-electron interactions on the ground state, the total spin and the excitation spectrum as a function of a shell filling and the degeneracy of the shell using TB+HF+CI for N_{edge} < 12 and approximate CI method for N_{edge}\geq 12. For a half-filled neutral shell we find spin polarized ground state for structures up to N=500 atoms in agreement with previous {\it ab initio} and mean-field calculations, and in agreement with Lieb's theorem for a Hubbard model on a bipartite lattice. Adding a single electron leads to the complete spin depolarization for N_{edge}\leq 9. For larger structures, the spin depolarization is shown to occur at different filling factors. Away from half-fillings excess electrons(holes) are shown to form Wigner-like spin polarized triangular molecules corresponding to large gaps in the excitation spectrum. The validity of conclusions is assessed by a comparison of results obtained from different levels of approximations. While for the charge neutral system all methods give qualitatively similar results, away from the charge neutrality an inclusion of all Coulomb scattering terms is necessary to produce results presented here.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figure

Spin and electronic correlations in gated graphene quantum rings

We present a theory of graphene quantum rings designed to produce degenerate shells of single particle states close to the Fermi level. We show that populating these shells with carriers using a gate leads to correlated ground states with finite total electronic spin. Using a combination of tight-binding and configuration interaction methods we predict ground state and total spin of the system as a function of the filling of the shell. We show that for smaller quantum rings, the spin polarization of the ground state at half filling depends strongly on the size of the system, but reaches a maximum value after reaching a critical size.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure

Optical properties of charged quantum dots doped with a single magnetic impurity

We present a microscopic theory of the optical properties of self-assembled quantum dots doped with a single magnetic manganese (Mn) impurity and containing a controlled number of electrons. The single-particle electron and heavy-hole electronic shells are described by two-dimensional harmonic oscillators. The electron-electron, electron-hole Coulomb as well as the short-range electron spin-Mn spin and hole spin-Mn spin contact exchange interactions are included. The electronic states of the photo-excited electron-hole-Mn complex and of the final electron-Mn complex are expanded in a finite number of configurations and the full interacting Hamiltonian is diagonalized numerically. The emission spectrum is predicted as a function of photon energy for a given number of electrons and different number of confined electronic quantum dot shells. We show how emission spectra allow to identify the number of electronic shells, the number of electrons populating these shells and, most importantly, their spin. We show that electrons not interacting directly with the spin of Mn ion do so via electron-electron interactions. This indirect interaction is a strong effect even when Mn impurity is away from the quantum dot center.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure

Zero-energy states in triangular and trapezoidal graphene structures

We derive analytical solutions for the zero-energy states of degenerate shell obtained as a singular eigenevalue problem found in tight-binding (TB) Hamiltonian of triangular graphene quantum dots with zigzag edges. These analytical solutions are in agreement with previous TB and density functional theory (DFT) results for small graphene triangles and extend to arbitrary size. We also generalize these solutions to trapezoidal structure which allow us to study bowtie graphene devices.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Self Assembled II-VI Magnetic Quantum Dot as a Voltage-Controlled Spin-Filter

A key element in the emergence of a full spintronics technology is the development of voltage controlled spin filters to selectively inject carriers of desired spin into semiconductors. We previously demonstrated a prototype of such a device using a II-VI dilute-magnetic semiconductor quantum well which, however, still required an external magnetic field to generate the level splitting. Recent theory suggests that spin selection may be achievable in II-VI paramagnetic semiconductors without external magnetic field through local carrier mediated ferromagnetic interactions. We present the first experimental observation of such an effect using non-magnetic CdSe self-assembled quantum dots in a paramagnetic (Zn,Be,Mn)Se barrier.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Magnetism and correlations in fractionally filled degenerate shells of graphene quantum dots

When an electron is confined to a triangular atomic thick layer of graphene [1-5] with zig-zag edges, its energy spectrum collapses to a shell of degenerate states at the Fermi level (Dirac point) [6-9]. The degeneracy is proportional to the edge size and can be made macroscopic. This opens up the possibility to design a strongly correlated electronic system as a function of fractional filling of the zero-energy shell, in analogy to the fractional quantum Hall effect in a quasi-two-dimensional electron gas[10], but without the need for a high magnetic field. In this work we show that electronic correlations, beyond the Hubbard model[6,7] and mean-field density functional theory (DFT) [7,8] play a crucial role in determining the nature of the ground state and the excitation spectrum of triangular graphene quantum dots as a function of dot size and filling fraction of the shell of zero-energy states. The interactions are treated by a combination of DFT, tight-binding, Hartree-Fock and configuration interaction methods (TB-HF-CI) and include all scattering and exchange terms within second nearest neighbors as well as interaction with metallic gate. We show that a half filled charge neutral shell leads to full spin polarization of the island but this magnetic moment is completely destroyed by the addition of a single electron, in analogy to the effect of skyrmions on the quantum Hall ferromagnet [11-14] and spin depolarization in electrostatically defined semiconductor quantum dots[15-18]. The depolarization of the ground state is predicted to result in blocking of current through a graphene quantum dot due to spin blockade (SB) [18].Comment: v2: minor corrections, new forma

Spin relaxation in a two-electron quantum dot

We discuss the rate of relaxation of the total spin in the two-electron droplet in the vicinity of the magnetic field driven singlet-triplet transition. The total spin relaxation is attributed to spin-orbit and electron-phonon interactions. The relaxation process is found to depend on the spin of ground and excited states. This asymmetry is used to explain puzzles in recent high source-drain transport experiments.Comment: 9 pages in the PDF format, 1 figur