Electronic structure of hexagonal quantum-disc clusters

Within the effective-mass approximation, we investigate the electronic structure of hexagonal quantum-disc clusters using the finite element method. With an increasing amount of quantum dots in the cluster, the electronic energy levels quickly expand into mini-bands, each consisting of discrete, unevenly distributed energy levels. The corresponding electronic eigenfunctions are linear combinations of the electron orbits in each quantum dot. The spatial symmetry of the combination is the same as the electronic eigenfunction of a single quantum dot.