Spin and angular momentum transitions in few-electron quantum dots and rings

Abstract

The studies on quantum dots and rings containing $4\ensuremath{\sim}6$ electrons reveal that the shapes of the systems have great impact on the spin transitions of the ground states. For five-electron case, the different shapes lead to the different transition processes in quantum dots and rings. For six-electron case, the ring confinement forbids the spin transition, which really exists in dot confinement. The investigations on the angular momentum transitions in magnetic fields show that the sensibility of the transitions to the size of the system depends remarkably on the particle number. The four-electron case is almost size insensitive but the five-electron case has obvious size dependence. It is also found that the behaviors of the few-electron entanglement in quantum dots and rings are quite different. The entanglement entropies in quantum dots increase with the increase in the magnetic field but exhibit Aharonov-Bohm oscillation patterns in narrow rings. The studies of the shape, size, and particle number effects are important for understanding the liquid-to-crystal transitions, and may be helpful for the manipulation of electronic states in quantum dots and rings.