In-gap corner states in core-shell polygonal quantum rings

• Published in: Scientific Reports
• Main Authors: Sitek, Anna, Ţolea, Mugurel, Niţă, Marian, Serra, Llorenç, Gudmundsson, Vidar, Manolescu, Andrei
• Other Authors: University of Iceland, Icelandic Research Fund
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Nature 2017
• Subjects: Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/173517; https://doi.org/10.1038/srep40197

We study Coulomb interacting electrons confined in polygonal quantum rings. We focus on the interplay of localization at the polygon corners and Coulomb repulsion. Remarkably, the Coulomb repulsion allows the formation of in-gap states, i.e., corner-localized states of electron pairs or clusters shifted to energies that were forbidden for non-interacting electrons, but below the energies of corner-side-localized states. We specify conditions allowing optical excitation to those states. This work was financed by the Research Fund of the University of Iceland and the Icelandic Research Fund. Peer reviewed