Approximate methods for the solution of quantum wires and dots: Connection rules between pyramidal, cuboidal, and cubic dots

Energy eigenvalues of the electronic ground state are calculated for rectangular and triangular GaAs/Ga0.6Al0.4As quantum wires as well as for cuboidal and pyramidal quantum dots of the same material. The wire (dot) geometries are approximated by a superposition of perpendicular independent finite one-dimensional potential wells. A perturbation is added to the system to improve the approximation. Excellent agreement with more complex treatments is obtained. The method is applied to investigate the ground state energy dependence on volume and aspect ratio for finite barrier cubic, cuboidal, and pyramidal quantum dots. It is shown that the energy eigenvalues of cubes are equal to those of cuboids of the same volume and aspect ratio similar to one. In addition, a relationship has been found between the volumes of pyramidal quantum dots (often the result of self-assembling in strain layered epitaxy) and cuboidal dots with the same ground state energy and aspect ratios close to one. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)04721-0].