We consider current shot noise and the full counting statistics in a chain of quantum dots which exhibits a continuous non-equilibrium phase transition as a function of the tunnel couplings of the chain with the electrodes. Using a combination of analytical and numerical methods, we establish that the full counting statistics is conventional away from the phase transition, but becomes, in a well-defined sense, essentially non-Gaussian on the critical line, where the current fluctuations are controlled by the dynamic critical exponent $z$. We find that signatures of the critical full counting statistics persist in quantum-dot chains of finite length.
We measure current by counting single electrons tunneling through an InAs nanowire quantum dot. The charge detector is realized by fabricating a quantum point contact in close vicinity to the nanowire. The results based on electron counting compare well to a direct measurements of the quantum dot current, when taking the finite bandwidth of the detector into account. The ability to detect single electrons also opens up possibilities for manipulating and detecting individual spins in nanowire quantum dots.
Recent experiments [Nature 521, 196 (2015) and Nat. Commun. 8, 395 (2017)] have presented evidence for electron pairing in a quantum dot beyond the superconducting regime. Here, we show that the impact of an attractive electron-electron interaction on the full counting statistics of electron transfer through a quantum dot is qualitatively different from the case of a repulsive interaction. In particular, the sign of higher-order (generalized) factorial cumulants reveals more pronounced correlations, which even survive in the limit of fast spin relaxation.
Full counting statistics of electron transport is a powerful diagnostic tool for probing the nature of quantum transport beyond what is obtainable from the average current or conductance measurement alone. In particular, the non-Markovian dynamics of quantum dot molecule plays an important role in the nonequilibrium electron tunneling processes. It is thus necessary to understand the non-Markovian full counting statistics in a quantum dot molecule. Here we study the non-Markovian full counting statistics in two typical quantum dot molecules, namely, serially coupled and side-coupled double qua…
We explore the full counting statistics of single electron tunneling through a quantum dot using a quantum point contact as non-invasive high bandwidth charge detector. The distribution of counted tunneling events is measured as a function of gate and source-drain-voltage for several consecutive electron numbers on the quantum dot. For certain configurations we observe super-Poissonian statistics for bias voltages at which excited states become accessible. The associated counting distributions interestingly show a bimodal characteristic. Analyzing the time dependence of the number of electron …
Destructive interference of single-electron tunneling between three quantum dots can trap an electron in a coherent superposition of charge on two of the dots. Coupling to external charges causes decoherence of this superposition, and in the presence of a large bias voltage each decoherence event transfers a certain number of electrons through the device. We calculate the counting statistics of the transferred charges, finding a crossover from sub-Poissonian to super-Poissonian statistics with increasing ratio of tunnel and decoherence rates.
We examine the full counting statistics of electron transport through double quantum dots coupled in series, with particular attention being paid to the unique features originating from level renormalization. It is clearly illustrated that the energy renormalization gives rise to a dynamic charge blockade mechanism, which eventually results in super-Poissonian noise. Coupling of the double dots to an external heat bath leads to dephasing and relaxation mechanisms, which are demonstrated to suppress the noise in a unique way.
We report on correlated real-time detection of individual electrons in an InAs nanowire double quantum dot. Two self-aligned quantum point contacts in an underlying two-dimensional electron gas material serve as highly sensitive charge detectors for the double quantum dot. Tunnel processes of individual electrons and all tunnel rates are determined by simultaneous measurements of the correlated signals of the quantum point contacts.
We study the effect of Coulomb interaction on the full counting statistics of an Aharonov-Bohm (AB) interferometer with a single-level quantum dot in one arm in the regime of weak dot-lead and lead-lead tunnel couplings. In the absence of Coulomb interaction, the interference processes are of nonresonant nature with an even AB flux dependence and obey bidirectional Poissonian statistics. For large charging energy, the statistic of these processes changes. In addition, processes of resonant nature with an odd flux dependence appear. In the limit of strongly asymmetric tunnel couplings from the …
We present time-resolved measurements of electron transport through a quantum dot. The measurements were performed using a nearby quantum point contact as a charge detector. The rates for tunneling through the two barriers connecting the dot to source and drain contacts could be determined individually. In the high bias regime, the method was used to probe excited states of the dot. Furthermore, we have detected bunching of electrons, leading to super-Poissonian noise. We have used the framework of the full counting statistics (FCS) to model the experimental data. The existence of super-Poisso…
We measure telegraph noise of current fluctuations in an electrostatically defined quantum dot in bilayer graphene by real-time detection of single electron tunneling with a capacitively coupled neighboring quantum dot. Suppression of the second and third cumulant (related to shot noise) in a tunable graphene quantum dot is demonstrated experimentally. With this method we demonstrate the ability to measure very low current and noise levels. Furthermore, we use this method to investigate the first spin excited state, an essential prerequisite to measure spin relaxation.
Low-temperature transport experiments on a p-type GaAs quantum dot capacitively coupled to a quantum point contact are presented. The time-averaged as well as time-resolved detection of charging events of the dot are demonstrated and they are used to extract the tunnelling rates into and out of the quantum dot. The extracted rates exhibit a super-linear enhancement with the bias applied across the dot which is interpreted in terms of a dense spectrum of excited states contributing to the transport, characteristic for heavy hole systems. The full counting statistics of charge transfer events an…
We have measured the full counting statistics (FCS) of current fluctuations in a semiconductor quantum dot (QD) by real-time detection of single electron tunneling with a quantum point contact (QPC). This method gives direct access to the distribution function of current fluctuations. Suppression of the second moment (related to the shot noise) and the third moment (related to the asymmetry of the distribution) in a tunable semiconductor QD is demonstrated experimentally. With this method we demonstrate the ability to measure very low current and noise levels.
We report on measurements of single electron tunneling through a quantum dot using a quantum point contact as non-invasive charge detector with fast time response. We elaborate on the unambiguous identification of individual tunneling events and determine the distribution of transferred charges, the so-called full counting statistics. We discuss our data analysis, including the error estimates of the measurement, and show that the quality of our experimental results is sufficiently high to extract cumulants of the distribution up to the 20th order for short times.
We theoretically consider charge transport through two quantum dots coupled in series. The corresponding full counting statistics for noninteracting electrons is investigated in the limits of sequential and coherent tunneling by means of a master equation approach and a density matrix formalism, respectively. We clearly demonstrate the effect of quantum coherence on the zero-frequency cumulants of the transport process, focusing on noise and skewness. Moreover, we establish the continuous transition from the coherent to the incoherent tunneling limit in all cumulants of the transport process a…
We investigate the zero-frequency shot noise of electronic tunneling through a single quantum dot (SQD) and coherently coupled quantum dots (CQD) taking into account the Coulomb interaction. Within Hartree-Fock approximation, the analytical expressions of current and zero-frequency shot noise are self-consistently derived in the framework of full counting statistics for the both systems. We demonstrate that the correction term of zero-frequency shot noise induced by the intradot Coulomb interaction is almost negligible compared to the noninteracting shot noise in a SQD, while in a CQD the inte…
We investigate the effect of quantum interferences and Coulomb interaction on the counting statistics of electrons crossing a double quantum dot in a parallel geometry using a generating function technique based on a quantum master equation approach. The skewness and the average residence time of electrons in the dots are shown to be the quantities most sensitive to interferences and Coulomb coupling. The joint probabilities of consecutive electron transfer processes show characteristic temporal oscillations due to interference. The steady-state fluctuation theorem which predicts a universal c…
We investigate the effects of Coulomb interaction on charge transfer through a quantum dot attached to a normal and a superconducting lead. While for voltages much larger than the gap we recover the usual result for normal conductors, for voltages much smaller than the gap superconducting correlations lead to a drastically different behavior. Especially, the usual charge doubling in the normal case is reflected in the occurence of quartets due to the onsite interaction.
We study the full counting statistics (FCS) of electron tunneling through a multi-terminal quantum dot in the Kondo regime within the slave-boson mean field theory. By employing the A.O. Gogolin and A. Komnik's method of calculating the FCS generating function based on the nonequilibrium Green's function [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 73}, 195301 (2006)], we obtain the counting field $λ$-dependent self-consistent equations for the mean values of the slave-boson fields and the explicit expression for the derivative of the adiabatic potential of the system with respect to the counting fields. Performing per…
The electronic energy levels and optical transitions of a semiconductor quantum dot are subject to dynamics within the solid-state environment. In particular, fluctuating electric fields due to nearby charge traps or other quantum dots shift the transition frequencies via the Stark effect. The environment dynamics are mapped directly onto the fluorescence under resonant excitation and diminish the prospects of quantum dots as sources of indistinguishable photons in optical quantum computing. Here, we present an analysis of resonance fluorescence fluctuations based on photon counting statistics…
A gate-defined quantum dot in an InAs nanowire is fabricated on top of a quantum point contact realized in a two-dimensional electron gas. The strong coupling between these two quantum devices is used to perform time-averaged as well as time-resolved charge detection experiments for electron flow through the quantum dot. We demonstrate that the Fano factor describing shot noise or time-correlations in single-electron transport depends in the theoretically expected way on the asymmetry of the tunneling barriers even in a regime where the thermal energy $k_\mathrm{B}T$ is comparable to the singl…
Entanglement between spatially separated electrons in nanoscale transport is a fundamental property, yet to be demonstrated experimentally. Here we propose and analyse theoretically the transport statistics of a generic spin entangler coupled to a hybrid quantum dot-ferromagnet detector system. We show that the full distribution of charges arriving at the ferromagnetic terminals provide complete information on the spin state of the particles emitted by the entangler. This provides means for spin entanglement detection via electrical current correlations, with optimal measurement strategies dep…
We examine the full counting statistics of quantum dots, which display super-Poissonian shot noise. By an extension to a generic situation with many excited states we identify the underlying transport process. The statistics is a sum of independent Poissonian processes of bunches of different sizes, which leads to the enhanced noise. The obtained results could be useful to determine transport characteristics in molecules and large quantum dots, since the noise (and higher cumulants) allow to identify the internal level structure, which is not visible in the average current.
We investigate theoretically and experimentally the full counting statistics of bidirectional single-electron tunneling through a double quantum dot in a GaAs/GaAlAs heterostructure and compare with predictions of the fluctuation theorem (FT) for Markovian stochastic processes. We observe that the quantum point contact electrometer used to study the transport induces nonequilibrium shot noise and dot-level fluctuations and strongly modifies the tunneling statistics. As a result, the FT appears to be violated. We show that it is satisfied if the back-action of the electrometer is taken into acc…
Graphene is considered to be a promising material for future electronics. The envisaged transistor applications often rely on precision cutting of graphene sheets with nanometer accuracy. In this letter we demonstrate graphene-based quantum dots created by using atomic force microscopy (AFM) with tip-assisted electrochemical etching. This lithography technique provides resolution of about 20 nm, which can probably be further improved by employing sharper tips and better humidity control. The behavior of our smallest dots in magnetic field has allowed us to identify the charge neutrality point …
Real-time detection of single electron tunneling through a T-shaped double quantum dot is simulated, based on a Monte Carlo scheme. The double dot is embedded in a dissipative environment and the presence of electrons on the double dot is detected with a nearby quantum point contact. We demonstrate directly the bunching behavior in electron transport, which leads eventually to a super-Poissonian noise. Particularly, in the context of full counting statistics, we investigate the essential difference between the dephasing mechanisms induced by the quantum point contact detection and the coupling…
Time-dependent driving influences the quantum and thermodynamic fluctuations of a system, changing the familiar physical picture of electronic noise which is an important source of information the about microscopic mechanism of quantum transport. Giving access to all cumulants of the current, the full counting statistics (FCS) is the powerful theoretical method to study fluctuations in nonequilibrium quantum systems. In this paper, we propose the application of FCS to consider periodic driven junctions. The combination of Floquet theory for time dynamics and nonequilibrium counting-field Green…
In a recent experiment [A. Donarini et al., Nat Comms 10, 381 (2019)], electronic transport through a carbon nanotube quantum dot was observed to be suppressed by the formation of a quantum-coherent ``dark state''. In this paper we consider theoretically the counting statistics and waiting-time distribution of this dark-state-limited transport. We show that the statistics are characterised by giant super-Poissonian Fano factors and long-tailed waiting-time distributions, both of which are signatures of the bistability and extreme electron bunching caused by the dark state.
Full counting statistics of electron transport is of fundamental importance for a deeper understanding of the underlying physical processes in quantum transport in nanoscale devices. The backaction effect from a detector on the nanoscale devices is also essential due to its inevitable presence in experiments. Here we investigate the backaction of a charge detector in the form of a quantum point contact (QPC) on the counting statistics of a biased double quantum dot (DQD). We show that this inevitable QPC-induced backaction can have profound effects on the counting statistics under certain cond…
We study theoretically the full counting statistics of electron transport through side-coupled double quantum dot (QD) based on an efficient particle-number-resolved master equation. It is demonstrated that the high-order cumulants of transport current are more sensitive to the quantum coherence than the average current, which can be used to probe the quantum coherence of the considered double QD system. Especially, the quantum coherence plays a crucial role in determining whether the super-Poissonian noise occurs in the weak inter-dot hopping coupling regime depending on the corresponding dot…
We study single-electron transport through a double quantum dot (DQD) monitored by a capacitively coupled quantum point-contact (QPC) electrometer. We derive the full counting statistics for the coupled DQD - QPC system and obtain the joint probability distribution of the charges transferred through the DQD and the QPC consistent with the fluctuation theorem (FT). The system can be described by a master equation with tunneling rates depending of the counting fields and satisfying a generalized local detailed-balance relation. Furthermore, we derive universal relations between the non-linear co…
We investigate the full counting statistics of a single quantum dot strongly coupled to a local phonon and weakly tunnel-connected to two metallic electrodes. By employing the generalized nonequilibrium Green function method and the Lang-Firsov transformation, we derive an explicit analytical formula for the cumulant generating function, which makes one to be able to identify distinctly the elastic and inelastic contributions to the current and zero-frequency shot noise. We find that at zero temperature, the inelastic effect causes upward steps in the current and downward jumps in the noise at…
Measurements of single electron tunneling through a quantum dot using a quantum point contact as charge detector have been performed for very long time traces with very large event counts. This large statistical basis is used for a detailed examination of the counting statistics for varying symmetry of the quantum dot system. From the measured statistics we extract high order cumulants describing the distribution. Oscillations of the high order cumulants are observed when varying the symmetry. We compare this behavior to the observed oscillation in time dependence and show that the variation o…
Full counting statistics (FCS) for the transport through a molecular quantum dot magnet is studied theoretically in the incoherent tunneling regime. We consider a model describing a single-level quantum dot, magnetically coupled to an additional local spin, the latter representing the total molecular spin s. We also assume that the system is in the strong Coulomb blockade regime, i.e., double occupancy on the dot is forbidden. The master equation approach to FCS introduced in Ref. [12] is applied to derive a generating function yielding the FCS of charge and current. In the master equation app…
We develop a conceptually simple scheme based on a master-equation approach to evaluate the full-counting statistics (FCS) of elastic and inelastic off-resonant tunneling (cotunneling) in quantum dots (QDs) and molecules. We demonstrate the method by showing that it reproduces known results for the FCS and shot noise in the cotunneling regime. For a QD with an excited state, we obtain an analytic expression for the cumulant generating function (CGF) taking into account elastic and inelastic cotunneling. From the CGF we find that the shot noise above the inelastic threshold in the cotunneling r…
We analyze the full counting statistics of photons emitted by a double quantum dot (DQD) coupled to a high-quality microwave resonator by electric dipole interaction. We show that at the resonant condition between the energy splitting of the DQD and the photon energy in the resonator, photon statistics exhibits both a sub-Poissonian distribution and antibunching. In the ideal case, when the system decoherence stems only from photodetection, the photon noise is reduced below one-half of the noise for the Poisson distribution and is consistent with current noise. The photon distribution remains …
We calculate the spin current distribution function for a Kondo dot in two different regimes. In the exactly solvable Toulouse limit the linear response, zero temperature statistics of the spin transfer is trinomial, such that all the odd moments vanish and the even moments follow a binomial distribution. On the contrary, the corresponding spin-resolved distribution turns out to be binomial. The combined spin and charge statistics is also determined. In particular, we find that in the case of a finite magnetic field or an asymmetric junction the spin and charge measurements become statisticall…
We report electron counting experiments in a silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor quantum dot architecture which has been previously demonstrated to generate a quantized current in excess of 80 pA with uncertainty below 30 parts per million. Single-shot detection of electrons pumped into a reservoir dot is performed using a capacitively coupled single-electron transistor. We extract the full probability distribution of the transfer of n electrons per pumping cycle for n = 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4. We find that the probabilities extracted from the counting experiment are in agreement with direct current …
The generating function for the cumulants of charge current distribution is calculated for two generalised Majorana resonant level models: the Kondo dot at the Toulouse point and the resonant level embedded in a Luttinger liquid with the interaction parameter $g=1/2$. We find that the low--temperature non-equilibrium transport in the Kondo case occurs via tunnelling of physical electrons as well as by coherent transmission of electron pairs. We calculate the third cumulant (`skewness') explicitly and analyse it for different couplings, temperatures, and magnetic fields. For the $g=1/2$ set-up …
Motivated by recent real-time electron counting experiments, we evaluate the full counting statistics (FCS) for the probability distribution of the electron number inside a quantum dot which is weakly coupled to source and drain leads. A non-Gaussian exponential distribution appears when there is no dot state close to the lead chemical potentials. We propose the measurement of the joint probability distribution of current and electron number, which reveals correlations between the two observables. We also show that for increasing strength of tunneling, the quantum fluctuations qualitatively ch…
We analyze the spin-resolved full counting statistics of electron transfer through an ultrasmall quantum dot coupled to metallic electrodes. Modelling the setup by the Anderson Hamiltonian, we explicitly take into account the onsite Coulomb repulsion $U$. We calculate the cumulant generating function for the probability to transfer a certain number of electrons with a preselected spin orientation during a fixed time interval. With the cumulant generating function at hand we are then able to calculate the spin current correlations which are of outmost importance in the emerging field of spintro…
We report non-invasive single-charge detection of the full probability distribution $P_n$ of the initialization of a quantum dot with $n$ electrons for rapid decoupling from an electron reservoir. We analyze the data in the context of a model for sequential tunneling pinch-off, which has generic solutions corresponding to two opposing mechanisms. One limit considers sequential "freeze out" of an adiabatically evolving grand canonical distribution, the other one is an athermal limit equivalent to the solution of a generalized decay cascade model. We identify the athermal capturing mechanism in …
We investigate the dynamics of electron spin qubits in quantum dots. Measurement of the qubit state is realized by a charge current through the dot. The dynamics is described in the framework of the quantum trajectory approach, widely used in quantum optics, and we show that it can be applied successfully to problems in condensed matter physics. The relevant master equation dynamics is unravelled to simulate stochastic tunneling events of the current through the dot.Quantum trajectories are then used to extract the counting statistics of the current. We show how, in combination with an electro…
We study full counting statistics of coherent electron transport through multi-terminal interacting quantum-dots under a finite magnetic field. Microscopic reversibility leads to the symmetry of the cumulant generating function, which generalizes the fluctuation theorem in the context of quantum transport. Using this symmetry, we derive the Onsager-Casimir relation in the linear transport regime and universal relations among nonlinear transport coefficients.
We theoretically study the conditional counting statistics of electron transport through a system consisting of a single quantum dot (SQD) or coherently coupled double quantum dots (DQD's) monitored by a nearby quantum point contact (QPC) using the generating functional approach with the maximum eigenvalue of the evolution equation matrix method, the quantum trajectory theory method (Monte Carlo method), and an efficient method we develop. The conditional current cumulants that are significantly different from their unconditional counterparts can provide additional information and insight into…
We calculate the charge transfer probability distribution function $χ(λ)$ for the Kondo dot in the strong coupling limit within the framework of the Nozières--Fermi--liquid theory of the Kondo effect. At zero temperature, the ratio of the moments $C_n$ of the charge distribution to the backscattering current $I_{\rm bs}$ follows a universal law $C_n/2I_{\rm bs}=(-1)^n(1+2^n)/6$. The functional form of $χ(λ)$ is consistent with tunnelling of electrons and, possibly, electron pairs. We then discuss the cross-over behaviour of $χ(λ)$ from weak to strong Coulomb repulsion in the underlying Anderso…
We consider the counting statistics of electron transport through a double quantum dot with special emphasis on the dephasing induced by a nearby charge detector. The double dot is embedded in a dissipative enviroment, and the presence of electrons on the double dot is detected with a nearby quantum point contact. Charge transport through the double dot is governed by a non-Markovian generalized master equation. We describe how the cumulants of the current can be obtained for such problems, and investigate the difference between the dephasing mechanisms induced by the quantum point contact and…
We use time-resolved charge detection techniques to investigate single-electron tunneling in semiconductor quantum dots. The ability to detect individual charges in real-time makes it possible to count electrons one-by-one as they pass through the structure. The setup can thus be used as a high-precision current meter for measuring ultra-low currents, with resolution several orders of magnitude better than that of conventional current meters. In addition to measuring the average current, the counting procedure also makes it possible to investigate correlations between charge carriers. In quant…
Using a microscopic model for stochastic transport through a single quantum dot that is modified by the Coulomb interaction of environmental (weakly coupled) quantum dots, we derive generic properties of the full counting statistics for multi-stable Markovian transport systems. We study the temporal crossover from multi-modal to broad uni-modal distributions depending on the initial mixture, the long-term asymptotics and the divergence of the cumulants in the limit of a large number of transport branches. Our findings demonstrate that the counting statistics of a single resonant level may be u…
We consider a quantum dot system whose charge fluctuations are monitored by a quantum point contact allowing for the detection of both charge and transferred heat statistics. Our system consists of two nearby conductors that exchange energy via Coulomb interaction. In interfaces consisting of capacitively coupled quantum dots, energy transfer is discrete and can be measured by charge counting statistics. We investigate gate dependent deviations away from a charge fluctuation theorem in the presence of local temperature gradients (hot spots). Non universal relations are found for state dependen…
We present a theoretical investigation for the full counting statistics of the Andreev tunneling through a quantum dot (QD) embedded between superconducting (SC) and normal leads in the presence of a strong on-site electron-phonon interaction using nonequilibrium Green function method. For this purpose, we generalize the dressed tunneling approximation (DTA) recently developed in dealing with inelastic tunneling in a normal QD system to the Andreev transport issue, which takes account of vibrational effect in evaluation of electronic tunneling self energy in comparison with other simple approa…
We report on the observation of periodic conductance oscillations near quantum Hall plateaus in suspended graphene nanoribbons. They are attributed to single quantum dots that form in the narrowest part of the ribbon, in the valleys and hills of a disorder potential. In a wide flake with two gates, a double-dot system's signature has been observed. Electrostatic confinement is enabled in single-layer graphene due to the gaps that form between Landau levels, suggesting a way to create gate-defined quantum dots that can be accessed with quantum Hall edge states.
Waiting time distribution and the zero-frequency full counting statistics of unidirectional electron transport through a double quantum dot molecule attached to spin-polarized leads are analyzed using the quantum master equation. The waiting time distribution exhibits a non-trivial dependence on the value of the exchange coupling between the dots and the gradient of the applied magnetic field, which reveals the oscillations between the spin states of the molecule. The zero-frequency full counting statistics, on the other hand, is independent of the aforementioned quantities, thus giving no ins…
We present photoluminescence studies of CdTe and CdMnTe quantum dots grown in two adjacent layers. We show that when the dots are 8 nm apart, their magnetooptical properties - Zeeman shifts and transition linewidths - are analogous to those of individual CdTe or CdMnTe dots. When the dots are grown closer, at a distance of 4 nm, it becomes possible to tune the electron states to resonance and obtain a formation of a molecular state hybridized over the two dots. As a result of the resonant enhancement of the electron-Mn ion exchange interaction, spectroscopic signatures specific to spin-depende…
We consider the theoretical description of real-time counting of electrons tunneling through a Coulomb-blockade quantum dot using a detector with finite bandwidth. By tracing out the quantum dot we find that the dynamics of the detector effectively is non-Markovian. We calculate the cumulant generating function corresponding to the resulting non-Markovian rate equation and find that the measured current cumulants behave significantly differently compared to those of a Markovian transport process. Our findings provide a novel interpretation of noise suppression found in a number of systems.
We investigate local and nonlocal signatures of hybridization between a quantum dot state and an extended Andreev bound state (ABS) in a gate-defined InAs nanowire with multiple side probes. When a quantum dot in one of the side probes was hybridized with an ABS in the nanowire, a characteristic spectroscopic pattern was observed both locally, i.e., in the probe with the quantum dot, and nonlocally, in the tunnel conductance of a remote probe. Nonlocal signatures of hybridization reveal the extended nature of the ABS.
We report optical studies of quantum dot excitons in individual suspended carbon nanotubes at cryogenic temperatures. Narrow optical linewidths, strongly suppressed spectral wandering, and photoluminescence lifetimes in the range of nanoseconds emerge as key signatures of exciton localization. We infer exciton quantum dot formation with a characteristic length of a few exciton Bohr radii. Localization inhibits exciton diffusion and protects the exciton from dephasing by structural or environmental inhomogeneities as well as from exploring nonradiative quenching sites. In consequence, quantum d…
We demonstrate here that the dipole-allowed optical absorption spectrum of a parabolic quantum dot subjected to an external magnetic field reflects the inter-electron interaction effects when the spin-orbit interaction is also taken into account. We have investigated the energy spectra and the dipole-allowed transition energies for up to four interacting electrons parabolically confined, and have uncovered several novel features in those spectra that are solely due to the SO interaction.
