Shell Filling and Spin Effects in a Few Electron Quantum Dot

We study atomiclike properties of artificial atoms by measuring Coulomb oscillations in vertical quantum dots containing a tunable number of electrons starting from zero. At zero magnetic field the energy needed to add electrons to a dot reveals a shell structure for a two-dimensional harmonic potential. As a function of magnetic field the current peaks shift in pairs, due to the filling of electrons into spin-degenerate single-particle states. When the magnetic field is sufficiently small, however, the pairing is modified, as predicted by Hund's rule, to favor the filling of parallel spins.