MONTE-CARLO CALCULATION OF FEW-ELECTRON SYSTEMS IN QUANTUM DOTS

Selected eigenstates are calculated for 1-10 electrons in a quasi two-dimensional harmonically confined dot as a function of magnetic field. This includes a detailed look at the ground state of three electrons and a more general calculation for 1-10 electrons carried out in the lowest Landau level for different spin configurations. The results provide an outline of the N-electron ground state as a function of magnetic field, enabling a comparison to be made with recent experiments involving capacitance measurements on quantum dots. The calculations are made using the fixed node quantum Monte-Carlo method which can accurately estimate electron correlation and easily extends to large numbers of electrons.