  We report on the electronic properties of few interacting electrons confined
in a parabolic quantum dot based on a theoretical approach developed to
investigate the influence of Bychkov-Rashba spin-orbit (SO) interaction on such
a system. We note that the spin-orbit coupling profoundly influences the energy
spectrum of interacting electrons in a quantum dot. Here we present accurate
results for the energy levels and optical-absorption spectra for parabolic
quantum dots containing upto four interacting electrons, in the presence of
spin-orbit coupling and under the influence of an externally applied,
perpendicular magnetic field. We have described in detail about a very accurate
numerical scheme to evaluate these quantities. We have evaluated the effects of
SO coupling on the Fock-Darwin spectra for quantum dots made out of three
different semiconductor systems, InAs, InSb, and GaAs.
