Wigner molecules in polygonal quantum dots: A density-functional study

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© 2003 American Physical Society (APS). This is the accepted version of the following article: Räsänen, E. & Saarikoski, H. & Puska, M. J. & Nieminen, Risto M. 2003. Wigner molecules in polygonal quantum dots: A density-functional study. Physical Review B. Volume 67, Issue 3. 035326-1-7. ISSN 1550-235X (electronic). DOI: 10.1103/physrevb.67.035326, which has been published in final form at http://journals.aps.org/prb/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevB.67.035326.
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Volume Title

School of Science | A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

Date

2003

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

035326-1-7

Series

Physical Review B, Volume 67, Issue 3

Abstract

We investigate the properties of many-electron systems in two-dimensional polygonal (triangle, square, pentagon, hexagon) potential wells by using the density-functional theory. The development of the ground-state electronic structure as a function of the dot size is of particular interest. First, we show that in the case of two electrons, the Wigner molecule formation agrees with previous exact diagonalization studies. Then we present in detail how the spin symmetry breaks in polygonal geometries as the spin density-functional theory is applied. In several cases with more than two electrons, we find a transition to the crystallized state, yielding coincidence with the number of density maxima and the electron number. We show that this transition density, which agrees reasonably well with previous estimations, is rather insensitive to both the shape of the dot and the electron number.

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Keywords

density-functional theory, Wigner molecules, spin density waves

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Citation

Räsänen, E. & Saarikoski, H. & Puska, M. J. & Nieminen, Risto M. 2003. Wigner molecules in polygonal quantum dots: A density-functional study. Physical Review B. Volume 67, Issue 3. 035326-1-7. ISSN 1550-235X (electronic). DOI: 10.1103/physrevb.67.035326.