Effect of the Coulomb interaction on the electron relaxation of weakly-confined quantum dot systems

Abstract

We study acoustic-phonon-induced relaxation of charge excitations in single and tunnel-coupled quantum dots containing few confined interacting electrons. The Full Configuration Interaction approach is used to account for the electron-electron repulsion. Electron-phonon interaction is accounted for through both deformation potential and piezoelectric field mechanisms. We show that electronic correlations generally reduce intradot and interdot transition rates with respect to corresponding single-electron transitions, but this effect is lessened by external magnetic fields. On the other hand, piezoelectric field scattering is found to become the dominant relaxation mechanism as the number of confined electrons increases. Previous proposals to strongly suppress electron-phonon coupling in properly designed single-electron quantum dots are shown to hold also in multi-electron devices. Our results indicate that few-electron orbital degrees of freedom are more stable than single-electron ones.

arXiv comment20 pages (preprint format), 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. B

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• Energy spectra of three electrons in Si/SiGe single and vertically coupled double quantum dots
• Chiral Spin Textures of Strongly Interacting Particles in Quantum Dots
• Co-tunneling current through the two-level quantum dot coupled to magnetic leads: A role of exchange interaction
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