Orbital Ferromagnetism in Interacting Few-Electron Dots with Strong Spin-Orbit Coupling
We study the ground state of N weakly interacting electrons (with N≤10) in a two-dimensional parabolic quantum dot with strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling. Using dimensionless parameters for the Coulomb interaction λ≲1 and the Rashba coupling α≫1, the low-energy physics is characterized by an almost...
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American Physical Society
2014-08-01
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Series: | Physical Review X |
Online Access: | http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.4.031033 |
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doaj-6f0a7ed54b78409290cdafa8c537d1232020-11-25T00:27:17ZengAmerican Physical SocietyPhysical Review X2160-33082014-08-014303103310.1103/PhysRevX.4.031033Orbital Ferromagnetism in Interacting Few-Electron Dots with Strong Spin-Orbit CouplingAmin NaseriAlex ZazunovReinhold EggerWe study the ground state of N weakly interacting electrons (with N≤10) in a two-dimensional parabolic quantum dot with strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling. Using dimensionless parameters for the Coulomb interaction λ≲1 and the Rashba coupling α≫1, the low-energy physics is characterized by an almost flat single-particle dispersion. From an analytical approach for α→∞ and N=2, and from numerical exact-diagonalization and Hartree-Fock calculations, we find a transition from a conventional unmagnetized ground state (for λ<λ_{c}) to an orbital ferromagnet (for λ>λ_{c}), with a large magnetization and a circulating charge current. We show that the critical interaction strength λ_{c}=λ_{c}(α,N) vanishes in the limit α→∞.http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.4.031033 |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Amin Naseri Alex Zazunov Reinhold Egger |
spellingShingle |
Amin Naseri Alex Zazunov Reinhold Egger Orbital Ferromagnetism in Interacting Few-Electron Dots with Strong Spin-Orbit Coupling Physical Review X |
author_facet |
Amin Naseri Alex Zazunov Reinhold Egger |
author_sort |
Amin Naseri |
title |
Orbital Ferromagnetism in Interacting Few-Electron Dots with Strong Spin-Orbit Coupling |
title_short |
Orbital Ferromagnetism in Interacting Few-Electron Dots with Strong Spin-Orbit Coupling |
title_full |
Orbital Ferromagnetism in Interacting Few-Electron Dots with Strong Spin-Orbit Coupling |
title_fullStr |
Orbital Ferromagnetism in Interacting Few-Electron Dots with Strong Spin-Orbit Coupling |
title_full_unstemmed |
Orbital Ferromagnetism in Interacting Few-Electron Dots with Strong Spin-Orbit Coupling |
title_sort |
orbital ferromagnetism in interacting few-electron dots with strong spin-orbit coupling |
publisher |
American Physical Society |
series |
Physical Review X |
issn |
2160-3308 |
publishDate |
2014-08-01 |
description |
We study the ground state of N weakly interacting electrons (with N≤10) in a two-dimensional parabolic quantum dot with strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling. Using dimensionless parameters for the Coulomb interaction λ≲1 and the Rashba coupling α≫1, the low-energy physics is characterized by an almost flat single-particle dispersion. From an analytical approach for α→∞ and N=2, and from numerical exact-diagonalization and Hartree-Fock calculations, we find a transition from a conventional unmagnetized ground state (for λ<λ_{c}) to an orbital ferromagnet (for λ>λ_{c}), with a large magnetization and a circulating charge current. We show that the critical interaction strength λ_{c}=λ_{c}(α,N) vanishes in the limit α→∞. |
url |
http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.4.031033 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT aminnaseri orbitalferromagnetismininteractingfewelectrondotswithstrongspinorbitcoupling AT alexzazunov orbitalferromagnetismininteractingfewelectrondotswithstrongspinorbitcoupling AT reinholdegger orbitalferromagnetismininteractingfewelectrondotswithstrongspinorbitcoupling |
_version_ |
1716167981530087424 |