Eur. Phys. J. B (2012) 85: 394
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2012-30589-8

Regular Article

Hund’s rule in the two-electron quantum dot

¹ Department of Chemistry, Technion, 32000 Haifa, Israel
² Nazareth Academic Institute, 16100 Nazareth, Israel
³ Chemistry Program, Centre College, Danville, 40422 Kentucky, USA

^a e-mail: jkatriel@techunix.technion.ac.il

Received: 13 July 2012
Published online: 3 December 2012

Abstract

Hund’s rule, specifying that in an open shell configuration the state of higher total spin has a lower energy, is also applicable to few-electron quantum dots. However, the relative contributions of the different energetic components behave in a qualitatively distinct way. This is accounted for by application of the virial theorem.