We probe for statistical and Coulomb-induced spin textures among the low-lying states of repulsively interacting particles confined to potentials that are both rotationally and time-reversal invariant. In particular, we focus on two-dimensional quantum dots and employ configuration-interaction techniques to directly compute the correlated many-body eigenstates of the system. We produce spatial maps of the single-particle charge and spin density and verify the annular structure of the charge density and the rotational invariance of the spin field. We further compute two-point spin correlations to determine the correlated structure of a single component of the spin vector field. In addition, we compute three-point spin-correlation functions to uncover chiral structures. We present evidence for both chiral and quasitopological spin textures within energetically degenerate subspaces in the three- and four-particle systems.
We probe for statistical and Coulomb-induced spin textures among the low-lying states of repulsively interacting particles confined to potentials that are both rotationally and time-reversal invariant. In particular, we focus on two-dimensional quantum dots and employ configuration-interaction techniques to directly compute the correlated many-body eigenstates of the system. We produce spatial maps of the single-particle charge and spin density and verify the annular structure of the charge density and the rotational invariance of the spin field. We further compute two-point spin correlations to determine the correlated structure of a single component of the spin vector field. In addition, we compute three-point spin-correlation functions to uncover chiral structures. We present evidence for both chiral and quasitopological spin textures within energetically degenerate subspaces in the three- and four-particle systems.
Quantum dot structures confine electrons in a small region of space. Some properties of semiconductor quantum dots, such as the discrete energy levels and shell filling effects visible in addition spectra, have analogies to those of atoms and indeed dots are sometimes referred to as 'artificial atoms'. However, atoms and dots show some fundamental differences due to electron correlations. For real atoms, the kinetic energy of electrons dominates over their mutual Coulomb repulsion energy and for this reason the independent electron approximation works well. For quantum dots the confining potential may be shallower than that of real atoms leading to lower electron densities and a dominance of mutual Coulomb repulsion over kinetic energy. In this strongly correlated regime the independent electron picture leads to qualitatively incorrect results. This thesis concentrates on few-electron quantum dots in the strongly correlated regime both for quasi-one-dimensional and two-dimensional dots in a square confining potential. In this so-called 'Wigner' regime the ground-state electronic charge density is localised near positions of classical electrostatic minima and the interacting electronic spectrum consists of well separated spin multiplets. In the strongly correlated regime the structure of low-energy multiplets is explained by mapping onto lattice models with extended-Hubbard and Heisenberg effective Hamiltonians. The parameters for these effective models are calculated within a Hartree approximation and are shown to reproduce well the exact results obtained by numerical diagonalisation of the full interacting Hamiltonian. Comparison is made between square dots and quantum rings with full rotational symmetry. In the very low-density regime, direct diagonalisation becomes impractical due to excessive computer time for convergence. In this regime a numerical renormalisation group method is applied to one-dimensional dots, enabling effective spin-interactions to be pr
Energy spectra, spin configurations, and entanglement characteristics of a system of four electrons in lateral double quantum dots are investigated using exact diagonalization (EXD), as a function of interdot separation, applied magnetic field, and strength of interelectron repulsion. A distinctly different quantum behavior is found compared to that of circular single quantum dots. As a function of the magnetic field, the energy spectra exhibit a low-energy band consisting of a group of six states, with the number six being a consequence of the conservation of the total spin of the four electrons and the ensuing spin degeneracies. These six states appear to cross at a single value of the magnetic field, with the crossing point becoming sharper for larger interdot distances. As the strength of the Coulomb repulsion increases, the six states tend to become degenerate and a well defined energy gap separates them from the higher-in-energy excited states. The appearance of the low-energy band is a consequence of the formation of a Wigner supermolecule, with the four electrons (two in each dot) being localized at the vertices of a rectangular parallelogram. Using the spin-resolved pair-correlation functions, one can map the EXD many-body wave functions onto the spin functions associated with the four localized electrons. Analogies with nanomagnets, such as finite Heisenberg clusters, are discussed. The ability to determine associated spin functions enables investigations concerning entanglement properties of the system of four electrons. In particular, the formation of Wigner supermolecules generates EXD solutions belonging to the class of strongly entangled states referred to as N-qubit Dicke states in the quantum-information literature.
We present a unified study of charge and spin qubits encoded in a single interacting quantum dot tunnel-coupled to Rashba fermionic leads. The dot is described by an Anderson impurity Hamiltonian with either repulsive or attractive local interactions and a magnetic field of arbitrary orientation. In the repulsive regime, a spin qubit is encoded in the singly occupied spin sector, whereas in the attractive regime, close to the degeneracy between the empty and doubly occupied configurations, these two states define a charge-qubit subspace. We combine a weak-coupling Lindblad master equation in the Markovian secular limit with numerically controlled matrix-product-state simulations of the full dot-reservoir system. In equilibrium, we identify magnetic pair breaking in the attractive regime and a weak Rashba-induced magnetic anisotropy when the magnetic field is rotated relative to the spin-orbit axis. In the dynamical regime, relaxation and decoherence are controlled by the energetic gap between the logical manifold and nearby leakage states, and are further enhanced by Rashba-dependent tunneling. These findings show that even a minimal Anderson-impurity description captures key ingredients for coherent spin and charge qubits: the energetic structure of leakage states and spin-orbit-dependent dot-lead hybridization.
We investigate the ground state of rotating two-component Bose-Einstein condensates in the combined potential well of one-dimensional spin-dependent optical lattice potential and harmonic potential. The density distribution of the condensate is striped. By defining the generalized momentum operator, we derive the velocity distribution of the condensate. The velocity contours are concentric circles for each stripe, with different centers for different stripes. This velocity distribution corresponds to a specific spin texture structure. In this texture, the azimuthal angle of the magnetic moments varies along the y-direction, while the z-component of the magnetic moments varies along the x-direction. When the lattice period [Formula: see text], the texture is divided into two regions. The magnetic moments reverse in a counterclockwise direction and in a clockwise direction as y increases in regions I and II, respectively. Furthermore, when the lattice period [Formula: see text], the texture is divided into three regions. The magnetic moments reverse in a counterclockwise direction, do not reverse, and reverse in a clockwise direction as y increases in regions I, II, and III, respectively. Accurate manipulation of the texture can be achieved by adjusting the optical lattice periods [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], the relative phase φ, and the rotational angular frequency Ω.
Energy spectra and spin configurations of a system of N=4 electrons in lateral double quantum dots (quantum dot helium molecules) are investigated using exact diagonalization (EXD), as a function of interdot separation, applied magnetic field (B), and strength of interelectron repulsion. As a function of the magnetic field, the energy spectra exhibit a low-energy band consisting of a group of six states, with the number six being a consequence of the conservation of the total spin and the ensuing spin degeneracies for four electrons. The energies of the six states appear to cross at a single value of the magnetic field, and with increasing Coulomb repulsion they tend to become degenerate, with a well-defined energy gap separating them from the higher-in-energy excited states. The appearance of the low-energy band is a consequence of the formation of a Wigner supermolecule, with the four electrons (two in each dot) being localized at the vertices of a rectangle. Using spin-resolved pair-correlation distributions, a method for mapping the complicated EXD many-body wave functions onto simpler spin functions associated with a system of four localized spins is introduced. Detailed interpretation of the EXD spin functions and EXD spectra associated with the low-energy band via a four-site Heisenberg cluster (with B-dependent exchange integrals) is demonstrated. Aspects of spin entanglement, referring to the well-known N-qubit Dicke states, are also discussed.
This thesis reports on the microscopic investigation of antiferromagnetic order in Hubbard chains, realized with ultracold repulsively interacting fermions in an optical lattice. Extending a quantum gas microscope on spin resolution opened the possibility to Access the full charge and spin statistics of a strongly correlated fermionic many body system. Using this technique, we measured antiferromagnetic correlations over distances up to three lattice sites. Starting with a repulsive degenerate two component mixture of 6Li atoms trapped in a single plane of a vertical lattice, we loaded the Atoms into one-dimensional tubes of a transverse optical superlattice. By adiabatically ramping up the lattice potential along the tubes, we isentropically entered the strongly correlated regime of the one-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard Hamiltonian. We spatially separated the two spin states into opposite sites of local double wells orthogonal to the direction of the lattice before single atom and site sensitive imaging. In this way we extracted the spin information of every single lattice site and were able to evaluate spin-spin correlations. The two component degenerate gases were produced with sub-Poissonian atom number fluctuations by magnetically driven evaporative cooling in vicinity of a Feshbach resonance, used to set the scattering length. The dependence of antiferromagnetic correlations on the driving superexchange coupling was experimentally investigated by varying the interparticle scattering length before loading the atoms into the optical lattice. Taking advantage of the underlying trapping potential of the optical lattice, which shaped the filling and the entropy of the gases, the influence of density excitations and different entropies on spin correlations was observed. By post-selecting the Hubbard chains based on their average filling and local atom number fluctuations, spin correlations corresponding to 58% of the zero temperature predictions in the Heisenberg regime were measured. By comparing the obtained antiferromagnetic correlations to Quantum-Monte-Carlo predictions for our System the lowest measured entropy per particle could be stated as s = 0.51(4)kB, clearly below the critical value of s = ln(2)kB, which is required to form longer ranged correlations. Below this critical entropy, in contrast to local density fluctuations, these spin correlations strongly depend on the entropy of the system. In the future, such a spin thermometer can be used to benchmark novel cooling techniques, which are required to enter the temperature regime of d-wave superconducting states. The access to the full particle and spin statistics will enable us to read out multi-point correlation functions, which characterize such exotic states of matter.