0000000001034413
AUTHOR
Esa Räsänen
showing 46 related works from this author
Strong quantum scarring by local impurities
2016
We discover and characterize strong quantum scars, or eigenstates resembling classical periodic orbits, in two-dimensional quantum wells perturbed by local impurities. These scars are not explained by ordinary scar theory, which would require the existence of short, moderately unstable periodic orbits in the perturbed system. Instead, they are supported by classical resonances in the unperturbed system and the resulting quantum near-degeneracy. Even in the case of a large number of randomly scattered impurities, the scars prefer distinct orientations that extremize the overlap with the impurities. We demonstrate that these preferred orientations can be used for highly efficient transport of…
Time-dependent density-functional theory of strong-field ionization of atoms by soft x rays
2014
Under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0 (CC-BY).-- et al.
Correlation energy of two-dimensional systems: Toward non-empirical and universal modeling
2009
The capability of density-functional theory to deal with the ground-state of strongly correlated low-dimensional systems, such as semiconductor quantum dots, depends on the accuracy of functionals developed for the exchange and correlation energies. Here we extend a successful approximation for the correlation energy of the three dimensional inhomogeneous electron gas, originally introduced by Becke [J. Chem. Phys. {\bf 88}, 1053 (1988)], to the two-dimensional case. The approach aims to non-empirical modeling of the correlation-hole functions satisfying a set of exact properties. Furthermore, the electron current and spin are explicitly taken into account. As a result, good performance is …
Strong-field-ionization suppression by light-field control
2012
In recent attempts to control strong-field phenomena such as molecular dissociation, undesired ionization sometimes seriously limited the outcome. In this work we examine the capability of quantum optimal control theory to suppress the ionization by rational pulse shaping. Using a simple model system and the ground-state occupation as the target functional, we show that optimal control generally leads to a significant suppression of the ionization, although the fluence and the pulse length are kept fixed. In the low-frequency regime the ionization is reduced mainly by avoiding high peaks in the intensity and thus preventing tunneling. In contrast, at high frequencies in the extreme ultravio…
Exchange and correlation energy functionals for two-dimensional open-shell systems
2009
We consider density functionals for exchange and correlation energies in two-dimensional systems. The functionals are constructed by making use of exact constraints for the angular averages of the corresponding exchange and correlation holes, respectively, and assuming proportionality between their characteristic sizes. The electron current and spin are explicitly taken into account, so that the resulting functionals are suitable to deal with systems exhibiting orbital currents and/or spin polarization. Our numerical results show that in finite systems the proposed functionals outperform the standard two-dimensional local spin-density approximation, still performing well also in the importa…
Pfaffian and fragmented states atν=52in quantum Hall droplets
2008
When a gas of electrons is confined to two dimensions, application of a strong magnetic field may lead to startling phenomena such as emergence of electron pairing. According to a theory this manifests itself as appearance of the fractional quantum Hall effect with a quantized conductivity at an unusual half-integer v=5/2 Landau level filling. Here we show that similar electron pairing may occur in quantum dots where the gas of electrons is trapped by external electric potentials into small quantum Hall droplets. However, we also find theoretical and experimental evidence that, depending on the shape of the external potential, the paired electron state can break down, which leads to a fragm…
Parameter-free density functional for the correlation energy in two dimensions
2010
Accurate treatment of the electronic correlation in inhomogeneous electronic systems, combined with the ability to capture the correlation energy of the homogeneous electron gas, allows to reach high predictive power in the application of density-functional theory. For two-dimensional systems we can achieve this goal by generalizing our previous approximation [Phys. Rev. B 79, 085316 (2009)] to a parameter-free form, which reproduces the correlation energy of the homogeneous gas while preserving the ability to deal with inhomogeneous systems. The resulting functional is shown to be very accurate for finite systems with an arbitrary number of electrons with respect to numerically exact refer…
Large two-dimensional electronic systems: Self-consistent energies and densities at low cost
2013
We derive a self-consistent local variant of the Thomas-Fermi approximation for (quasi-) two-dimensional (2D) systems by localizing the Hartree term. The scheme results in an explicit orbital-free representation of the electron density and energy in terms of the external potential, the number of electrons, and the chemical potential determined upon normalization. We test the method over a variety 2D nanostructures by comparing to the Kohn-Sham 2D local-density approximation (LDA) calculations up to 600 electrons. Accurate results are obtained in view of the negligible computational cost. We also assess a local upper bound for the Hartree energy. Peer reviewed
Lower Bounds on the Exchange-Correlation Energy in Reduced Dimensions
2009
Bounds on the exchange-correlation energy of many-electron systems are derived and tested. By using universal scaling properties of the electron-electron interaction, we obtain the exponent of the bounds in three, two, one, and quasi-one dimensions. From the properties of the electron gas in the dilute regime, the tightest estimate to date is given for the numerical prefactor of the bound, which is crucial in practical applications. Numerical tests on various low-dimensional systems are in line with the bounds obtained, and give evidence of an interesting dimensional crossover between two and one dimensions.
Exchange-correlation potential with a proper long-range behavior for harmonically confined electron droplets
2010
The exchange-correlation potentials stemming from the local-density approximation and several generalized-gradient approximations are known to have incorrect asymptotic decay. This failure is independent of the dimensionality but so far the problem has been corrected---within the mentioned approximations---only in three dimensions. Here we provide a cured exchange-correlation potential for two-dimensional harmonically confined systems that cover a wide range of applications in quantum Hall and semiconductor physics, especially in quantum-dot modeling. The given potential is a generalized-gradient approximation and we demonstrate that it agrees very well with the analytic result of a two-ele…
Strictly correlated uniform electron droplets
2011
We study the energetic properties of finite but internally homogeneous D-dimensional electron droplets in the strict-correlation limit. The indirect Coulomb interaction is found to increase as a function of the electron number, approaching the tighter forms of the Lieb-Oxford bound recently proposed by Räsänen [Phys. Rev. Lett.PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.102.206406 102, 206406 (2009)]. The bound is satisfied in three-, two-, and one-dimensional droplets, and in the latter case it is reached exactly-regardless of the type of interaction considered. Our results provide useful reference data for delocalized strongly correlated systems, and they can be used in the development and testing…
Quantitative modeling of spin relaxation in quantum dots
2011
Physics Department, Harvard University, 02138 Cambridge MA, USA(Dated: December 16, 2011)We use numerically exact diagonalization to calculate the spin-orbit and phonon-induced triplet-singlet relaxation rate in a two-electron quantum dot exposed to a tilted magnetic field. Our schemeincludes a three-dimensional description of the quantum dot, the Rashba and the linear and cubicDresselhaus spin-orbit coupling, the ellipticity of the quantum dot, and the full angular descriptionof the magnetic field. We are able to find reasonable agreement with the experimental results ofMeunier et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 126601 (2007)] in terms of the singlet-triplet energy splittingand the spin relaxation …
Becke-Johnson-type exchange potential for two-dimensional systems
2009
We extend the Becke-Johnson approximation [J. Chem. Phys. 124, 221101 (2006)] of the exchange potential to two dimensions. We prove and demonstrate that a direct extension of the underlying formalism may lead to divergent behavior of the potential. We derive a cure to the approach by enforcing the gauge invariance and correct asymptotic behavior of the exchange potential. The procedure leads to an approximation which is shown, in various quasi-two-dimensional test systems, to be very accurate in comparison with the exact exchange potential, and thus a considerable improvement over the commonly applied local-density approximation.
Ultrafast sequential charge transfer in a double quantum dot
2010
We use optimal control theory to construct external electric fields which coherently transfer the electronic charge in a double quantum-dot system. Without truncation of the eigenstates we operate on desired superpositions of the states in order to prepare the system to a localized state and to coherently transfer the charge from one well to another. Within a fixed time interval, the optimal processes are shown to occur through several excited states. The obtained yields are generally between 99% and 99.99% depending on the field constraints, and they are not dramatically affected by strict frequency filters which make the fields (e.g., laser pulses) closer to experimental realism. Finally …
Laplacian-level density functionals for the exchange-correlation energy of low-dimensional nanostructures
2010
In modeling low-dimensional electronic nanostructures, the evaluation of the electron-electron interaction is a challenging task. Here we present an accurate and practical density-functional approach to the two-dimensional many-electron problem. In particular, we show that spin-density functionals in the class of meta-generalized-gradient approximations can be greatly simplified by reducing the explicit dependence on the Kohn-Sham orbitals to the dependence on the electron spin density and its spatial derivatives. Tests on various quantum-dot systems show that the overall accuracy is well preserved, if not even improved, by the modifications.
Constraints of reduced density-matrix functional theory for the two-dimensional homogeneous electron gas
2011
Reduced density-matrix functional theory (RDMFT) has become an appealing alternative to density-functional theory to describe electronic properties of strongly correlated systems. Here we derive exact conditions for the suitability of RDMFT to describe the two-dimensional homogeneous electron gas, which is the base system for semiconductor quantum dots and quantum Hall devices, for example. Following the method of Cioslowski and Pernal [J. Chem. Phys. 111, 3396 (1999)] we focus on the properties of power functionals of the form $f(n,{n}^{\ensuremath{'}})={(n{n}^{\ensuremath{'}})}^{\ensuremath{\alpha}}$ for the scaling function in the exchange-correlation energy. We show that in order to hav…
Orbital-free energy functional for electrons in two dimensions
2009
We derive a non-empirical, orbital-free density functional for the total energy of interacting electrons in two dimensions. The functional consists of a local formula for the interaction energy, where we follow the lines introduced by Parr for three-dimensional systems [R. G. Parr, J. Phys. Chem. 92, 3060 (1988)], and the Thomas-Fermi approximation for the kinetic energy. The freedom from orbitals and from the Hartree integral makes the proposed approximation numerically highly efficient. The total energies obtained for confined two-dimensional systems are in a good agreement with the standard local-density approximation within density-functional theory, and considerably more accurate than …
Semi-local density functional for the exchange-correlation energy of electrons in two dimensions
2010
We present a practical and accurate density functional for the exchange-correlation energy of electrons in two dimensions. The exchange part is based on a recent two-dimensional generalized-gradient approximation derived by considering the limits of small and large density gradients. The fully local correlation part is constructed following the Colle-Salvetti scheme and a Gaussian approximation for the pair density. The combination of these expressions is shown to provide an efficient density functional to calculate the total energies of two-dimensional electron systems such as semiconductor quantum dots. Excellent performance of the functional with respect to numerically exact reference da…
Colle-Salvetti-type local density functional for the exchange-correlation energy in two dimensions
2010
We derive an approximate local density functional for the exchange-correlation energy to be used in density-functional calculations of two-dimensional systems. In the derivation we employ the Colle-Salvetti wave function within the scheme of Salvetti and Montagnani [Phys. Rev. A 63, 052109 (2001)] to satisfy the sum rule for the exchange-correlation hole. We apply the functional for the two-dimensional homogeneous electron gas as well as to a set of quantum dots and find a very good agreement with exact reference data.
Optical control of entangled states in semiconductor quantum wells
2012
We present theory and calculations for coherent high-fidelity quantum control of many-particle states in semiconductor quantum wells. We show that coupling a two-electron double quantum dot to a terahertz optical source enables targeted excitations that are one to two orders of magnitude faster and significantly more accurate than those obtained with electric gates. The optical fields subject to physical constraints are obtained through quantum optimal control theory that we apply in conjunction with the numerically exact solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. Our ability to coherently control arbitrary two-electron states, and to maximize the entanglement, opens up further pe…
Local correlation functional for electrons in two dimensions
2008
We derive a local approximation for the correlation energy in two-dimensional electronic systems. In the derivation we follow the scheme originally developed by Colle and Salvetti for three dimensions, and consider a Gaussian approximation for the pair density. Then, we introduce an ad-hoc modification which better accounts for both the long-range correlation, and the kinetic-energy contribution to the correlation energy. The resulting functional is local, and depends parametrically on the number of electrons in the system. We apply this functional to the homogeneous electron gas and to a set of two-dimensional quantum dots covering a wide range of electron densities and thus various amount…
Information transfer in QT-RR dynamics: Application to QT-correction
2018
ABSTRACTThe relation between the electrical properties of the heart and the beating rate is essential for the heart functioning. This relation is central when calculating the “corrected QT interval” — an important measure of the risk of potentially lethal arrhythmias. We use the transfer entropy method from information theory to quantitatively study the mutual dynamics of the ventricular action potential duration (the QT interval) and the length of the beat-to-beat (RR) interval. We show that for healthy individuals there is a strong asymmetry in the information transfer: the information flow from RR to QT dominates over the opposite flow (from QT to RR), i.e. QT depends on RR to a larger e…
Gaussian approximations for the exchange-energy functional of current-carrying states: Applications to two-dimensional systems
2009
Electronic structure calculations are routinely carried out within the framework of density-functional theory, often with great success. For electrons in reduced dimensions, however, there is still a need for better approximations to the exchange-correlation energy functional. Furthermore, the need for properly describing current-carrying states represents an additional challenge for the development of approximate functionals. In order to make progress along these directions, we show that simple and efficient expressions for the exchange energy can be obtained by considering the short-range behavior of the one-body spin-density matrix. Applications to several two-dimensional systems confirm…
Chalcopyrite Semiconductors for Quantum Well Solar Cells
2011
We explore here the possibilities of using highly absorbing chalcopyrite semiconductors of the type Cu(In,Ga)Se2 in a quantum well solar cell structure. Thin alternating layers of 50 nm CuInSe2 and CuGaSe2 were grown epitaxially on a GaAs(100) substrate employing metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. The optical properties of a resulting structure of three layers were investigated by photoluminescence and photoreflectance, indicating charge carrier confinement ∗To whom correspondence should be addressed †Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin ‡Universidad Politecnica de Madrid ¶University of Illinois §University of Jyvaskyla ‖Current address: Universitat des Saarlandes, Uni Campus, Gebaude A5.1, 66123 Saarbr…
Interaction-induced spin polarization in quantum dots.
2010
The electronic states of lateral many electron quantum dots in high magnetic fields are analyzed in terms of energy and spin. In a regime with two Landau levels in the dot, several Coulomb blockade peaks are measured. A zig-zag pattern is found as it is known from the Fock-Darwin spectrum. However, only data from Landau level 0 show the typical spin-induced bimodality, whereas features from Landau level 1 cannot be explained with the Fock-Darwin picture. Instead, by including the interaction effects within spin-density-functional theory a good agreement between experiment and theory is obtained. The absence of bimodality on Landau level 1 is found to be due to strong spin polarization.
Universal correction for the Becke-Johnson exchange potential
2010
The Becke-Johnson exchange potential [A. D. Becke and E. R. Johnson, J. Chem. Phys. 124, 221101 (2006)] has been successfully used in electronic structure calculations within density-functional theory. However, in its original form, the potential may dramatically fail in systems with non-Coulombic external potentials, or in the presence of external magnetic or electric fields. Here, we provide a system-independent correction to the Becke-Johnson approximation by (i) enforcing its gauge-invariance and (ii) making it exact for any single-electron system. The resulting approximation is then better designed to deal with current-carrying states and recovers the correct asymptotic behavior for sy…
Coulomb-interacting billiards in circular cavities
2013
We apply a molecular dynamics scheme to analyze classically chaotic properties of a two-dimensional circular billiard system containing two Coulomb-interacting electrons. As such, the system resembles a prototype model for a semiconductor quantum dot. The interaction strength is varied from the noninteracting limit with zero potential energy up to the strongly interacting regime where the relative kinetic energy approaches zero. At weak interactions the bouncing maps show jumps between quasi-regular orbits. In the strong-interaction limit we find an analytic expression for the bouncing map. Its validity in the general case is assessed by comparison with our numerical data. To obtain a more …
Introducing libeemd: a program package for performing the ensemble empirical mode decomposition
2016
The ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) and its complete variant (CEEMDAN) are adaptive, noise-assisted data analysis methods that improve on the ordinary empirical mode decomposition (EMD). All these methods decompose possibly nonlinear and/or nonstationary time series data into a finite amount of components separated by instantaneous frequencies. This decomposition provides a powerful method to look into the different processes behind a given time series data, and provides a way to separate short time-scale events from a general trend. We present a free software implementation of EMD, EEMD and CEEMDAN and give an overview of the EMD methodology and the algorithms used in the deco…
Electron-electron interactions in artificial graphene
2012
Recent advances in the creation and modulation of graphenelike systems are introducing a science of ``designer Dirac materials''. In its original definition, artificial graphene is a man-made nanostructure that consists of identical potential wells (quantum dots) arranged in an adjustable honeycomb lattice in the two-dimensional electron gas. As our ability to control the quality of artificial graphene samples improves, so grows the need for an accurate theory of its electronic properties, including the effects of electron-electron interactions. Here we determine those effects on the band structure and on the emergence of Dirac points.
Observation of sequential spin flips in quantum rings
2011
We observe strong signatures of spin flips in quantum rings exposed to external magnetic fields in the Coulomb blockade regime. The signatures appear as a pattern of lines corresponding to local reduction of conductance, and they cover a large range of magnetic fields and number of electrons. The sequence of lines, as well as other features in the conductance, can be captured by many-electron calculations within density-functional theory. The calculations show that most lines in the pattern correspond to sequential spin flips between filling factors 2 and 1. We believe that the ability to probe individual spin flips provides an important step toward precise spin control in quantum ring devi…
Electron magneto-tunneling through single self-assembled InAs quantum dashes
2014
We have investigated electron magneto-tunneling through single self-assembled InAs quantum dashes (QDHs) coupled to metal nanogap electrodes. The samples operate as single electron transistors and exhibit clear shell structures, reflecting the anisotropic shape of the QDHs. In high magnetic fields, the samples exhibit strongly orbital-dependent large diamagnetic shifts and large electron g-factors in the range |g| ~ 3–11. The strong level-to-level fluctuation of the g-factors implies the presence of strong spin–orbit interaction in this system. These properties suggest that InAs QDHs are promising for the manipulation of single-electron orbital/spin states by external electric/magnetic fiel…
Many-electron transport in Aharonov-Bohm interferometers: Time-dependent density-functional study
2012
We apply time-dependent density-functional theory to study many-electron transport in Aharonov-Bohm interferometers in a non-equilibrium situation. The conductance properties in the system are complex and depend on the enclosed magnetic flux in the interferometer, the number of interacting particles, and the mutual distance of the transport channels at the points of encounter. Generally, the electron-electron interactions do not suppress the visibility of Aharonov-Bohm oscillations if the interchannel distance -- determined by the positioning of the incompressible strips through the external magnetic field -- is optimized. However, the interactions also impose an interesting Aharonov-Bohm p…
Validity of power functionals for a homogeneous electron gas in reduced-density-matrix-functional theory
2016
Physically valid and numerically efficient approximations for the exchange and correlation energy are critical for reduced density-matrix functional theory to become a widely used method in electronic structure calculations. Here we examine the physical limits of power functionals of the form $f(n,n')=(n n')^\alpha$ for the scaling function in the exchange-correlation energy. To this end we obtain numerically the minimizing momentum distributions for the three- and two-dimensional homogeneous electron gas, respectively. In particular, we examine the limiting values for the power $\alpha$ to yield physically sound solutions that satisfy the Lieb-Oxford lower bound for the exchange-correlatio…
Billiards in magnetic fields: A molecular dynamics approach
2009
We present a computational scheme based on classical molecular dynamics to study chaotic billiards in static external magnetic fields. The method allows to treat arbitrary geometries and several interacting particles. We test the scheme for rectangular single-particle billiards in magnetic fields and find a sequence of regularity islands at integer aspect ratios. In the case of two Coulomb-interacting particles the dynamics is dominated by chaotic behavior. However, signatures of quasiperiodicity can be identified at weak interactions, as well as regular trajectories at strong magnetic fields. Our scheme provides a promising tool to monitor the classical limit of many-electron semiconductor…
Density gradients for the exchange energy of electrons in two dimensions
2009
We derive a generalized gradient approximation to the exchange energy to be used in density functional theory calculations of two-dimensional systems. This class of approximations has a long and successful history, but it has not yet been fully investigated for electrons in two dimensions. We follow the approach originally proposed by Becke for three-dimensional systems [Int. J. Quantum Chem. 23, 1915 (1983), J. Chem. Phys. 85, 7184 (1986)]. The resulting functional depends on two parameters that are adjusted to a test set of parabolically confined quantum dots. Our exchange functional is then tested on a variety of systems with promising results, reducing the error in the exchange energy b…
Time-dependent transport in Aharonov–Bohm interferometers
2010
A numerical approach is employed to explain transport characteristics in realistic, quantum Hall based Aharonov-Bohm interferometers. First, the spatial distribution of incompressible strips, and thus the current channels, are obtained applying a self-consistent Thomas-Fermi method to a realistic heterostructure under quantized Hall conditions. Second, the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation is solved for electrons injected in the current channels. Distinctive Aharonov-Bohm oscillations are found as a function of the magnetic flux. The oscillation amplitude strongly depends on the mutual distance between the transport channels and on their width. At an optimal distance the amplitude and t…
On the lower bound on the exchange-correlation energy in two dimensions
2010
We study the properties of the lower bound on the exchange-correlation energy in two dimensions. First we review the derivation of the bound and show how it can be written in a simple density-functional form. This form allows an explicit determination of the prefactor of the bound and testing its tightness. Next we focus on finite two-dimensional systems and examine how their distance from the bound depends on the system geometry. The results for the high-density limit suggest that a finite system that comes as close as possible to the ultimate bound on the exchange-correlation energy has circular geometry and a weak confining potential with a negative curvature. Fil: Räsänen, Esa. Universi…
Fractal dynamics in chaotic quantum transport
2013
Despite several experiments on chaotic quantum transport in two-dimensional systems such as semiconductor quantum dots, corresponding quantum simulations within a real-space model have been out of reach so far. Here we carry out quantum transport calculations in real space and real time for a two-dimensional stadium cavity that shows chaotic dynamics. By applying a large set of magnetic fields we obtain a complete picture of magnetoconductance that indicates fractal scaling. In the calculations of the fractality we use detrended fluctuation analysis -- a widely used method in time series analysis -- and show its usefulness in the interpretation of the conductance curves. Comparison with a s…
Optimal control strategies for coupled quantum dots
2013
AbstractSemiconductor quantum dots are ideal candidates for quantum information applications in solid-state technology. However, advanced theoretical and experimental tools are required to coherently control, for example, the electronic charge in these systems. Here we demonstrate how quantum optimal control theory provides a powerful way to manipulate the electronic structure of coupled quantum dots with an extremely high fidelity. As alternative control fields we apply both laser pulses as well as electric gates, respectively. We focus on double and triple quantum dots containing a single electron or two electrons interacting via Coulomb repulsion. In the two-electron situation we also br…
Optimal local control of coherent dynamics in custom-made nanostructures
2013
We apply quantum optimal control theory to establish a local voltage-control scheme that operates in conjunction with the numerically exact solution of the time-dependent Schr¨ odinger equation. The scheme is demonstrated for high-fidelity coherent control of electronic charge in semiconductor double quantum dots. We find tailored gate voltages in the viable gigahertz regime that drive the system to a desired charge configuration with >99% yield. The results could be immediately verified in experiments and would play an important role in applications towards solid-state quantum computing. During the past decade, advances in the fabrication of custom-made nanostructures have allowed the obse…
Aharonov-Bohm effect in many-electron quantum rings
2010
The Aharonov-Bohm effect is investigated in two-dimensional, single-terminal quantum rings in magnetic fields by using time-dependent density-functional theory. We find multiple transport loops leading to the oscillation periods of $h/(en)$, where $n$ is the number of loops. We show that the Aharonov-Bohm oscillations are relatively weakly affected by the electron-electron interactions, whereas the ring width has a strong effect on the characteristics of the oscillations. Our results propose that in those experimental semiconductor quantum-ring devices that show clear Aharonov-Bohm oscillations the electron current is dominated by a few states along narrow conduction channels.
Exact Coulomb cutoff technique for supercell calculations in two dimensions
2009
We present a reciprocal space technique for the calculation of the Coulomb integral in two dimensions in systems with reduced periodicity, i.e., finite systems, or systems that are periodic only in one dimension. The technique consists in cutting off the long-range part of the interaction by modifying the expression for the Coulomb operator in reciprocal space. The physical result amounts in an effective screening of the spurious interactions originated by the presence of ghost periodic replicas of the system. This work extends a previous report [C. A. Rozzi et al., Phys. Rev. B 73, 205119 (2006)], where three-dimensional systems were considered. We show that the use of the cutoffs dramatic…
Femtosecond laser pulse shaping for enhanced ionization
2009
El pdf del artículo es la versión post-print: arXiv:0906.1938v1
Stability of spin droplets in realistic quantum Hall devices
2013
We study the formation and characteristics of "spin droplets",i.e., compact spin-polarized configurations in the highest occupied Landau level, in an etched quantum Hall device at filling factors $2\leq\nu\leq3$. The confining potential for electrons is obtained with self-consistent electrostatic calculations on a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure with experimental system parameters. Real-space spin-density-functional calculations for electrons confined in the obtained potential show the appearance of stable spin droplets at $\nu\sim 5/2$. The qualitative features of the spin droplet are similar to those in idealized (parabolic) quantum-dot systems. The universal stability of the state against ge…
Many-particle dynamics and intershell effects in Wigner molecules
2011
We apply classical molecular dynamics within the velocity Verlet algorithm to examine the formation dynamics of Wigner crystals in two-dimensional harmonic oscillators. Using a large ensemble of initial conditions as well as different freezing mechanisms, we obtain reliable information on the energies and probabilities of stable and metastable configurations, their formation dynamics, and their stability. Wigner-crystal configurations of up to 30 particles are presented and the dynamics of transition processes, e.g., intershell effects, are analyzed.
Toward an all-round semi-local potential for the electronic exchange
2010
We test local and semi-local density functionals for the electronic exchange for a variety of systems including atoms, molecules, and atomic chains. In particular, we focus on a recent universal extension of the Becke-Johnson exchange potential [E. R\"as\"anen, S. Pittalis, and C. R. Proetto, J. Chem. Phys. 132, 044112 (2010)]. It is shown that when this potential is used together with the Becke-Roussel approximation to the Slater potential [A. D. Becke and M. R. Roussel, Phys. Rev. A 39, 3761 (1989)], a good overall agreement is obtained with experimental and numerically exact results for several systems, and with a moderate computational cost. Thus, this approximation is a very promising …