Artificial molecular quantum rings under magnetic field influence

TL;DR

This paper investigates how magnetic fields influence the electronic structure and persistent currents in coupled quantum rings with few electrons, revealing rules governing state transitions based on electron parity and many-body effects.

Contribution

It provides a systematic analysis of magnetic field effects on quantum ring ground states using spin-density functional theory, highlighting transition rules and the interplay of interactions and tunneling.

Findings

Magnetic field induces angular momentum, spin, and iso-spin transitions.

Transitions follow rules based on electron parity and Hund's rules.

Electron-electron interactions and tunneling significantly affect electronic states.

Abstract

The ground states of few electrons confined in two vertically coupled quantum rings in the presence of an external magnetic field are studied systematically within the current spin-density functional theory. Electron-electron interactions combined with inter-ring tunneling affects the electronic structure and the persistent current. For small values of the external magnetic field, we recover the zero magnetic field molecular quantum ring ground state configurations. Increasing the magnetic field many angular momentum, spin, and iso-spin transitions are predicted to occur in the ground state. We show that these transitions follow certain rules, which are governed by the parity of the number of electrons, the single particle picture, the Hund's rules and many-body effects.