The binding energy of a hydrogenic impurity in self-assembled double quantum dots is calculated via the finitedifference method. The variation in binding energy with donor position, structure parameters and external magnetic field is studied in detail. The results found are： （i） the binding energy has a complex behaviour due to coupling between the two dots; （ii） the binding energy is much larger when the donor is placed in the centre of one dot than in other positions; and （iii） the external magnetic field has different effects on the binding energy for different quantum-dot sizes or lateral confinements.
We propose a theoretical method to investigate the effect of the Dresselhaus spin–orbit coupling（DSOC） on the spin transport properties of a regular polygonal quantum ring with an arbitrary number of segments. We find that the DSOC can break the time reversal symmetry of the spin conductance in a polygonal ring and that this property can be used to reverse the spin direction of electrons in the polygon with the result that a pure spin up or pure spin down conductance can be obtained by exchanging the source and the drain. When the DSOC is considered in a polygonal ring with Rashba spin–orbit coupling（RSOC） with symmetric attachment of the leads, the total conductance is independent of the number of segments when both of the two types of spin–orbit coupling（SOC） have the same value. However, the interaction of the two types of SOC results in an anisotropic and shape-dependent conductance in a polygonal ring with asymmetric attachment of the leads. The method we proposed to solve for the spin conductance of a polygon can be generalized to the circular model.
