Electron correlation in artificial atoms

Electron correlation is essential to the accurate description of molecular systems. Here, parabolic quantum dots (often referred to as artificial atom s) are treated with the coupled cluster formalism of quantum chemistry to i ntroduce correlation. Electron correlation is shown to account for between 1% and 9% of the total energy of quantum dots with from two to eight electr ons and has a significant qualitative effect on the addition spectra. We em ploy a scaling relationship, confirmed by our calculations, which allows th e treatment of quantum dots without specific reference to material properti es. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.