Role of interactions in the far-infrared spectrum of a lateral quantum dot molecule

TL;DR

This study investigates how electron interactions and confinement shape the far-infrared spectrum of a two-electron lateral quantum dot molecule, revealing that interactions can mimic high-symmetry confinement effects.

Contribution

It demonstrates that electron-electron interactions influence the spectrum to resemble that of a symmetric quantum dot, highlighting the diagnostic potential of far-infrared spectroscopy.

Findings

Interactions drive the spectrum towards high-symmetry behavior

Far-infrared spectroscopy probes effective confinement

Spectrum reflects external potential symmetry

Abstract

We study the effects of electron-electron correlations and confinement potential on the far-infrared spectrum of a lateral two-electron quantum dot molecule by exact diagonalization. The calculated spectra directly reflect the lowered symmetry of the external confinement potential. Surprisingly, we find interactions to drive the spectrum towards that of a high-symmetry parabolic quantum dot. We conclude that far-infrared spectroscopy is suitable for probing effective confinement of the electrons in a quantum dot system, even if interaction effects cannot be resolved in a direct fashion.