Magnetization of interacting electrons in anisotropic quantum dots with Rashba spin-orbit interaction

Magnetization of anisotropic quantum dots in the presence of the Rashba spin-orbit interaction has been studied for three and four interacting electrons in the dot for non-zero values of the applied magnetic field. We observe unique behaviors of magnetization that are direct reflections of the anisotropy and the spin-orbit interaction parameters independently or concurrently. In particular, there are saw-tooth structures in the magnetic field dependence of the magnetization, as caused by the electron-electron interaction, that are strongly modified in the presence of large anisotropy and high strength of the spin orbit interactions. We also report the temperature dependence of magnetization that indicates the temperature beyond which these structures due to the interactions disappear. Additionally, we found the emergence of a weak sawtooth structure in magnetization for three electrons in the high anisotropy and large spin-orbit interaction limit that was explained as a result of merging of two low-energy curves when the level spacings evolve with increasing values of the anisotropy and the spin-orbit interaction strength. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.