A STUDY OF ELECTRON CORRELATION INTERACTIONS IN SEMICONDUCTOR QUANTUM-DOT NANOSTRUCTURES

The influence of electron correlation interactions in semiconductor quantum dot systems is investigated by means of the many-particle Schrodinger equation. The approach is three-dimensional and includes correlation according to the formalism of Hylleraas. By comparing Hylleraas and Hartree-Fock results, insight is obtained into how the charge redistribution, attributable to correlation interactions, affects ground and excited state energies and electron confinement in isolated quantum dots and in coupled two-dot systems. It is found that correlation interactions lead to reduced quantum dot energies in some situations, and that Kohn-Sham effective potentials constructed from Hylleraas charge densities show an interesting structure, particularly in asymmetric dot configurations. These and other results are discussed in the light of experimental data.