Donor binding energies in a spherical core–shell quantum dot: parabolic and shifted parabolic shell potentials

Abstract

The effects of parabolic and shifted parabolic potentials on centred hydrogenic impurity-related binding energies are studied. This is theoretically achieved by solving the Schrodinger equation within the effective mass approximation. The hydrogenic impurity situates in the core of a spatially constant electrostatic potential, surrounded by a shell material which has either an intrinsic parabolic potential or shifted parabolic potential. For a given outer radius of the shell, the parabolic potential enhances binding energies (with greater enhancement for small radii of the core), while the shifted parabolic potential dwindles binding energies for small cores, and increases the binding energies for larger cores. An increase in the spatially invariant potential in the core results in reduced binding energies, with appreciable decrement occurring in core–shell structures that have wider cores.