ELECTRON–ELECTRON INTERACTIONS IN THE QUANTUM DOT INDUCED BY THE SURFACE ACOUSTIC WAVE

Abstract

In order to study the higher order quantized plateaus in the acoustoelectric current induced by the surface acoustic wave (SAW), we consider in this paper, the Coulomb interaction of electrons trapped in the SAW-induced quantum dot at the Hartree approximation level. The Hartree self-consistent potential that originates from the electron–electron interactions in the quantum dot satisfies the Poisson equation and can be solved numerically together with the Schrödinger equation; following which, the conventional tunneling mechanism can be used to interpret the step-like acoustoelectric current, in which the escape of electrons from the quantum dot determines the deviation of the current from the quantized value. It should be noted that the quantum dot is formed by both the SAW-induced potential and the Hartree self-consistent potential in our paper, which is different from previous works. We have also calculated the first and the second quantized plateaus by use of this method.