Valleytronic full configuration-interaction approach: An application to the excitation spectra of Si double-dot qubits

Abstract

The influence of strong electron-electron interactions and Wigner-molecule (WM) formation on the spectra of $2e$ singlet-triplet double-dot Si qubits is presented based on a full configuration interaction (FCI) approach that incorporates the valley degree of freedom (VDOF) in the context of the continuous (effective mass) description of semiconductor materials. Our FCI treats the VDOF as an isospin in addition to the regular spin. Our treatment is able to assign to each energy curve in the qubit's spectrum a complete set of good quantum numbers for both the spin and the valley isospin. This reveals an underlying SU(4) $\supset$ SU(2) $\times$ SU(2) group-chain organization in the Si double-dot spectra. With parameters in the range of actual experimental situations, we demonstrate in a double-dot qubit that, in the (2,0) charge configuration and compared to the expected large, and dot-size determined, single-particle (orbital) energy gap, the strong $e-e$ interactions drastically quench the spin-singlet$-$spin-triplet energy gap, $E_{\rm ST}$, within the same valley, making it competitive to the small energy gap, $E_V$, between the two valleys. We present results for both the $E_{\rm ST} < E_V$ and $E_{\rm ST} > E_V$ cases. We investigate the spectra as a function of detuning and demonstrate the strengthening of the avoided crossings due to a lowering of the interdot barrier and/or the influence of valley-orbit coupling. We further demonstrate, as a function of an applied magnetic field, the emergence of avoided crossings in the (1,1) charge configuration due to the spin-valley coupling. The valleytronic FCI formulated here, and implementeded for two electrons confined in a tunable double quantum dot, offers also a most effective tool for analyzing the spectra of Si qubits with more than two wells and/or more than two electrons.