Energy spectrum and structure of confined one-dimensional few-electron systems with and without coupling to light in a cavity

An explicitly correlated Gaussian basis is used to calculate the energies and wave functions of one-dimensional few-electron systems in confinement potentials created by external potentials or coupling to light in cavity. The appearance and properties of electron density peaks as the function of the relative strength of the confinement and the Coulomb interaction are studied. It is shown that similar Wigner crystal-like structures can be formed by coupling electrons to light due to the dipole self-interaction term in the light-matter Hamiltonian, provided an additional extremely weak confining potential is present. The relation of these systems to Wigner crystals is discussed.

Automated summary

In this study, an explicitly correlated Gaussian basis is used to calculate the energies and wave functions of one-dimensional few-electron systems in confinement potentials induced by external potentials or coupling to light in cavity. The appearance and properties of electron density peaks as a function of the relative strength of the confinement and Coulomb interaction are investigated. It is found that coupling electrons to light can lead to Wigner crystal-like structures in the presence of an additional extremely weak confining potential, and the connection of these systems to Wigner crystals is discussed.