Low-energy trions in graphene quantum dots

Abstract

We investigate, within the envelope function approximation, the low-energy states of trions in graphene quantum dots (QDs). The presence of valley pseudospin in graphene as an electron degree of freedom apart from spin adds convolution to the interplay between exchange symmetry and the electron-electron interaction in the trion, leading to new states of trions as well as a low-energy trion spectrum different from those in semiconductors. Due to the involvement of valley pseudospin, it is found that the low-energy spectrum is nearly degenerate and consists of states all characterized by having an antisymmetric (pseudospin) $\ensuremath{\bigotimes}$ (spin) component in the wave function, with the spin (pseudospin) part being either singlet (triplet) or triplet (singlet), as opposed to the spectrum in a semiconductor whose ground state is known to be nondegenerate and always a spin singlet in the case of ${X}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ trions. We investigate trions in the various regimes determined by the competition between quantum confinement and electron-electron interaction, both analytically and numerically. The numerical work is performed within a variational method accounting for electron mass discontinuity across the QD edge. The result for electron-hole correlation in the trion is presented. Effects of varying quantum dot size and confinement potential strength on the trion binding energy are discussed. The ``relativistic effect'' on the trion due to the unique relativistic type electron energy dispersion in graphene is also examined.