Two electrons in a strongly coupled double quantum dot: from an artificial helium atom to a hydrogen molecule

A variational treatment for a two-electron quantum dot (the artificial helium atom) is proposed which leads to exact answer for the ground state energy. Depending on the magnetic field value the singlet-triplet and triplet-triplet transitions of the ground state take place, which are captured in our solution. Using the same variational technique we find corrections to wave function and energy and the transition field strengths in a realistic dot where electron wave function h...

We study theoretically a double quantum dot hydrogen molecule in the GaAs conduction band as the basic elementary gate for a quantum computer with the electron spins in the dots serving as qubits. Such a two-dot system provides the necessary two-qubit entanglement required for quantum computation. We determine the excitation spectrum of two horizontally coupled quantum dots with two confined electrons, and study its dependence on an external magnetic field. In particular, we ...

A trial wave function for two-dimensional quantum dot helium in an arbitrary perpendicular magnetic field (a system of two interacting electrons in a two-dimensional parabolic confinement potential) is introduced. A key ingredient of this trial wave function is a Jastrow pair correlation factor that has a displaced Gaussian form. The above choice of the pair correlation factor is instrumental on assuring the overall quality of the wave function at all values of the magnetic f...

Exact results for the classical and quantum system of two vertically coupled two-dimensional single electron quantum dots are obtained as a function of the interatomic distance (d) and with perpendicular magnetic field. The classical system exhibits a second order structural transition as a function of d which is smeared out and shifted to lower d values in the quantum case. The spin-singlet - spin-triplet oscillations are shifted to larger magnetic fields with increasing d a...

We show that the spin-and-space unrestricted Hartree-Fock method, in conjunction with the companion step of the restoration of spin and space symmetries via Projection Techniques (when such symmetries are broken), is able to describe the full range of couplings in two-dimensional double quantum dots, from the strong-coupling regime exhibiting delocalized molecular orbitals to the weak-coupling and dissociation regimes associated with a Generalized Valence Bond combination of ...

We study coupled semiconductor quantum dots theoretically through a generalized Hubbard approach, where intra- and inter-dot Coulomb Correlation, as well as tunneling effects are described on the basis of realistic electron wavefunctions. We find that the ground-state configuration of vertically-coupled double dots undergoes non-trivial quantum transitions as a function of the inter-dot distance d; at intermediate values of d we predict a new phase that should be observable i...

The effect of orbital magnetism on the chemical bonding of lateral, two-dimensional artificial molecules is studied in the case of a 2e double quantum dot (artificial molecular hydrogen). It is found that a perpendicular magnetic field reduces the coupling (tunneling) between the individual dots and, for sufficiently high values, it leads to complete dissociation of the artificial molecule. The method used is building on Lowdin's work on Projection Operators in Quantum Chemis...

We study the magnetic field induced singlet/triplet transition for two electrons in vertically coupled quantum dots by exact diagonalization of the Coulomb interaction. We identify the different mechanisms occurring in the transition, involving either in-plane correlations or localization in opposite dots, depending on the field direction. Therefore, both spin and orbital degrees of freedom can be manipulated by field strength and direction. The phase diagram of realistic dev...

The electronic structure of two vertically coupled quantum dots containing two electrons is investigated in the presence of interdot tunneling. Our approach also includes the interdot exchange and we find that the tunneling is affected by the Coulomb interaction. There is an interplay between direct tunneling, the interdot exchange and the Coulomb interaction influence on the tunneling, which can lead to a zero angular momentum spin-singlet - spin-triplet transition of the gr...

The localization of two interacting electrons in a coupled-quantum-dots semiconductor structure is demonstrated through numerical calculations of the time evolution of the two-electron wave function including the Coulomb interaction between the electrons. The transition from the ground state to a localized state is induced by an external, time-dependent, uniform electric field. It is found that while an appropriate constant field can localize both electrons in one of the well...