Tight-Binding Model for Spontaneous Magnetism of Quantum Dot Lattices

We use a simple tight-binding model to study the magnetism of two-dimensional quantum dot lattices with 1 to 12 electrons per dot. The results show that in the middle of an electron shell the lattice favours antiferromag-netism while with nearly empty or full shells ferromagnetism is favoured. The size of the antiferromagnetic region increases with the coordination number of the dot. A one-dimensional dot lattice shows a spin-Peierls transition. The results for a square lattice are in good agreement with density functional calculations of Koskinen et al. [13]. 1