Hydrogenic impurities in spherical quantum dots in a magnetic field

The ground state and binding energies for a hydrogenic impurity in a spheri cal quantum dot within a uniform magnetic field, are calculated through the variational method in the frame of the effective-mass approximation. The t rial wave functions used in the calculation are flexible enough to treat th e cases of on-center, off-center, or edge impurities. Overall results show reasonable agreement when compared with other calculations. Interestingly e nough, in the case of an off-center impurity, a critical point from which b ulk states evolve to surface or edge states is also found. The dependence o f this point on the magnetic field strength is discussed and interpreted. ( C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.