Inter- and intra-band Coulomb interactions between holes in silicon nanostructures

TL;DR

This paper derives a comprehensive Coulomb interaction model for holes in silicon nanostructures, accounting for intra- and inter-band processes, and explores their effects on excitation spectra and hole correlations.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed derivation of the interaction Hamiltonian for holes in silicon using the six-band envelope-function scheme, including both intra- and inter-band Coulomb interactions.

Findings

Short-range interactions are significant in highly screened environments.

Inter- and intra-band Coulomb processes influence excitation spectra.

Formation of hole Wigner molecules predicted in unscreened conditions.

Abstract

We present a full derivation of the interaction Hamiltonian for holes in silicon within the six-band envelope-function scheme, which appropriately describes the valence band close to the $\boldsymbol{\Gamma}$ point. The full structure of the single-hole eigenstates is taken into account, including the Bloch part. The scattering processes caused by the Coulomb interaction are shown to be both intraband and interband, the latter being mostly short-ranged. In the asymptotic long-range limit, the effective potential tends to the screened Coulomb potential, and becomes purely intraband, as assumed in previous models. We apply our model to compute the excitation spectra of two interacting holes in prototypical silicon quantum dots, taking into account different dielectric environments. It is shown that, in the highly screened regime, short-range interactions (both intra- and inter-band) can be very relevant, while they lose importance when there is no screening other than the one proper of the bulk silicon crystal. In the latter case, we predict the formation of hole Wigner molecules.