Interplay between tunneling and exchange effects in the two electron double quantum dot molecule

The electronic structure of two vertically coupled quantum dots containing two electrons is investigated in the presence of interdot tunneling. Our approach also includes the interdot exchange and we find that the tunneling is affected by the Coulomb interaction. There is an interplay between direct tunneling, the interdot exchange and the Coulomb interaction influence on the tunneling, which can lead to a zero angular momentum spin-singlet - spin-triplet transition of the ground state, even in the absence of a magnetic field.