Correlated states and spin transitions in nanofabricated AlGaAs/GaAs few-electron quantum dots probed by inelastic light scattering

Spin transitions and correlated few-electron states are investigated by resonant inelastic light scattering in dilute arrays of GaAs/AlGaAs modulation-doped quantum dots (QDs) fabricated by electron-beam lithography and low impact reactive-ion etching. We focus on QDs with four electrons. We show that at moderate magnetic fields, the ground state is a singlet with total spin S = 0. A rich spectrum of distinct spin and charge inter-shell excitations is found, which cannot be described by a mean-field Hartree-Fock framework based on the quantum description of Fock-Darwin energy levels. Instead, the experimental results are well modeled by numerical evaluations within a full configuration interaction approach that highlights the impact of correlation effects in this configuration. This work demonstrates that the sensitivity reached by resonant inelastic light scattering enables the study of few-electron effects in QDs formed by state-of-the-art nanofabrication processes under the extreme conditions of low temperatures and high magnetic fields. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.