2002/09/01 by Toshimasa Fujisawa, T. Fujisawa, D. G. Austing +6 · 16 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic orbital #Atomic physics #Condensed matter physics #Electron #Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Principal quantum number #Quantum #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum dissipation #Quantum dot #Quantum mechanics #Semiconductor Quantum Structures and Devices #Spin (aerodynamics) #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/nature00976
slightly longer version of Nature 419, 278 (2002)
openalex publication_date 2002/09/01 · arxiv created 2002/09/19 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The strength of radiative transitions in atoms is governed by selection rules. Spectroscopic studies of allowed transitions in hydrogen and helium provided crucial evidence for the Bohr's model of an atom. Forbidden transitions, which are actually allowed by higher-order processes or other mechanisms, indicate how well the quantum numbers describe the system. We apply these tests to the quantum states in semiconductor quantum dots (QDs), which are regarded as artificial atoms. Electrons in a QD occupy quantized states in the same manner as electrons in real atoms. However, unlike real atoms, the confinement potential of the QD is anisotropic, and the electrons can easily couple with phonons of the material. Understanding the selection rules for such QDs is an important issue for the manipulation of quantum states. Here we investigate allowed and forbidden transitions for phonon emission in one- and two-electron QDs (artificial hydrogen and helium atoms) by electrical pump-and-probe experiments, and find that the total spin is an excellent quantum number in artificial atoms. This is attractive for potential applications to spin based information storage.