The orbital magnetization of single and double quantum dots in a tight binding model

TL;DR

This paper investigates the orbital magnetization of single and double quantum dots using a tight-binding model, analyzing effects of Coulomb interaction, tunneling, and external potentials, and comparing results with recent experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed tight-binding approach to study orbital magnetization in coupled quantum dots, including effects of chirality, anti-crossing, and external gate detuning.

Findings

Orbital magnetization depends on energy spectrum and edge/bulk states.

Chirality and anti-crossing significantly influence magnetization.

External gate potential modifies the energy spectra and magnetization.

Abstract

We calculate the orbital magnetization of single and double quantum dots coupled both by Coulomb interaction and by electron tunneling. The electronic states of the quantum dots are calculated in a tight-binding model and the magnetization is discussed in relation to the energy spectrum and to the edge and bulk states. We identify effects of chirality of the electronic orbits and of the anti-crossing of the energy levels when the magnetic field is varied. We also consider the effects of detuning the energy spectra of the quantum dots by an external gate potential. We compare our results with the recent experiments of Oosterkamp et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 4951 (1998).