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Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 047401 (2009) [4 pages]

Antibonding Ground States in InAs Quantum-Dot Molecules

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M. F. Doty1,*, J. I. Climente2, M. Korkusinski3, M. Scheibner1, A. S. Bracker1, P. Hawrylak3, and D. Gammon1
1Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C. 20375, USA
2CNR-INFM National Center on nanoStructures and bioSystems at Surfaces (S3), Via Campi 213/A, 41100 Modena, Italy
3Institute for Microstructural Sciences, National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Canada K1A 0R6

Received 19 September 2008; published 28 January 2009

Coherent tunneling between two InAs quantum dots forms delocalized molecular states. Using magnetophotoluminescence spectroscopy we show that when holes tunnel through a thin barrier, the lowest energy molecular state has bonding orbital character. However, as the thickness of the barrier increases, the molecular ground state changes character from a bonding orbital to an antibonding orbital, confirming recent theoretical predictions. We explain how the spin-orbit interaction causes this counterintuitive reversal by using a four-band k·p model and atomistic calculations that account for strain.

© 2009 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.047401
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.047401
PACS:
78.67.Hc, 78.20.Ls, 78.47.−p, 78.55.Cr

*doty@udel.edu

Present address: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19711, USA.

 
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