Influence of confining potentials on the exchange coupling in double quantum dots

We report simple expressions for the exchange coupling in double quantum dots calculated within the Heitler-London and the Hund-Mulliken approximations using four different confining potentials. At large interdot distances and at large magnetic fields, the exchange coupling does not depend significantly on the details of the potentials. In contrast, at low fields and short distances, different behaviors of the exchange coupling can be attributed to particular features of the potentials. Our results may be useful as guidelines in numerical studies and in the modeling of experiments.