The Coulomb-interaction-induced breaking of the Aufbau principle for the hole charging of InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots

Abstract

The so called ‘incomplete hole shell filling’ phenomenon, that is the breaking of the Aufbau principle was reported by Reuter et al (Phys. Rev. Lett. 94 026808) in the hole charging spectra of a quantum dot when the results were interpreted in the context of the s/p/d shell system—typical for electrons. We report an example of an inter-particle-interaction induced Aufbau principle violation even if it is applied to the one-particle Kohn–Luttinger eigenstates. We present a /configuration-interaction study that concerns multiple holes confined in an InGaAs/GaAs self-assembled cylindrical quantum dot. The eigenenergies and eigenvectors of up to six hole ground states were obtained—along with the corresponding one-hole orbital occupations—and discussed in the context of the Aufbau principle.