  We investigate small equal-mass two-component Fermi gases under external
spherically symmetric confinement in which atoms with opposite spins interact
through a short-range two-body model potential. We employ a non-perturbative
microscopic framework, the stochastic variational approach, and determine the
system properties as functions of the interspecies s-wave scattering length a,
the orbital angular momentum L of the system, and the numbers N1 and N2 of
spin-up and spin-down atoms (with N1-N2 =0 or 1 and N < 7, where N=N1+N2). At
unitarity, we determine the energies of the five- and six-particle systems for
various ranges r0 of the underlying two-body model potential and extrapolate to
the zero-range limit. These energies serve as benchmark results that can be
used to validate and assess other numerical approaches. We also present
structural properties such as the pair distribution function and the radial
density. Furthermore, we analyze the one-body and two-body density matrices. A
measure for the molecular condensate fraction is proposed and applied. Our
calculations show explicitly that the natural orbitals and the momentum
distributions of atomic Fermi gases approach those characteristic for a
molecular Bose gas if the s-wave scattering length a, a>0, is sufficiently
small.
