Resonant, non-resonant and anomalous states of Dirac electrons in a parabolic well in the presence of magnetic fields

Abstract

We report on several new basic properties of a parabolic dot in the presence of a magnetic field. The ratio between the potential strength and the Landau level (LL) energy spacing serves as the coupling constant of this problem. In the weak coupling limit the energy spectrum in each Hilbert subspace of an angular momentum consists of discrete LLs of graphene. In the intermediate coupling regime non-resonant states form a closely spaced energy spectrum. We find, counter-intuitively, that resonant quasi-bound states of both positive and negative energies exist in the spectrum. The presence of resonant quasi-bound states of negative energies is a unique property of massless Dirac fermions. As the strong coupling limit is approached resonant and non-resonant states transform into anomalous states, whose probability densities develop a narrow peak inside the well and another broad peak under the potential barrier. These properties may investigated experimentally by measuring optical transition energies that can be described by a scaling function of the coupling constant.