Electronic Phase Diagrams of Carriers in Self-Assembled Quantum Dots: Violation of Hund’s Rule and the Aufbau Principle for Holes

Abstract

We study the ground-state orbital and spin configurations of up to six electrons or holes loaded into self-assembled $\mathrm{InAs}/\mathrm{GaAs}$ quantum dots. We use a general phase-diagram approach constructed from single-particle pseudopotential and many-particle configuration interaction methods. The predicted hole charging energies agree with recent charging experiments, but offer a different interpretation: we find that while the charging of electrons follows both Hund’s rule and the Aufbau principle, the charging of holes follows a nontrivial charging pattern which violates both the Aufbau principle and Hund’s rule.