Two-electron singlet states in semiconductor quantum dots with Gaussian confinement: a single-parameter variational calculation

The problem of two electrons in a three-dimensional quantum dot with Gaussian confinement is investigated for the singlet pairing by a variational method with a very simple wavefunction containing only a single parameter and a Jastrow-like factor, which is shown to yield fairly good results for deep confining potentials. The calculation is also performed for a few realistic semiconductor quantum dots and the phase diagrams for the two-electron singlet states are obtained for these materials. The pair density function is calculated for several parameter values and its peak positions are obtained as a function of the confinement length and the depth of the potential to study the behaviour of the electron-pair size. The size of the bound pair of electrons is also obtained by directly calculating the average distance between the two electrons in three different ways and compared with the pair correlation results. It is furthermore shown that, other properties remaining the same, the two-electron energy and the electron-pair size depend crucially on the effective electronic mass and the dielectric constant of the material. Finally, the ways of improving the wavefunction are also indicated.