Vortex proliferation in the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless regime on a two-dimensional lattice of Bose-Einstein condensates

We observe the proliferation of vortices in the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless regime on a two-dimensional array of Josephson-coupled Bose-Einstein condensates. As long as the Josephson (tunneling) energy J exceeds the thermal energy T, the array is vortex free. With decreasing J/T, vortices appear in the system in ever greater numbers. We confirm thermal activation as the vortex-formation mechanism and obtain information on the size of bound vortex pairs as J/T is varied.     

Quantum phase diagram of granular superconducting quantum dots array

We study the quantum phase diagram of granular superconducting quantum dots (GSQD) array. We implement the physics of granularity by considering site dependent Josephson couplings, on-site charging energies and the intersite interactions. We predict dimer density wave and staggered phases at the insulating state for higher order commensurability. Several parts of the quantum phase diagram of GSQD are in contrast with the clean superconducting quantum dots array. We also obtain the superconducting phase of GSQD. We develop the theory for weak tunneling conductance and the Coulomb energy is smaller than the superconducting gap.     

Conductance through strongly interacting rings in a magnetic field

We study the conductance through finite Aharonov-Bohm rings of interacting electrons weakly coupled to non-interacting leads at two arbitrary sites. This model can describe an array of quantum dots with a large charging energy compared to the interdot overlap. As a consequence of the spin-charge separation, which occurs in these highly correlated systems, the transmittance is shown to present pronounced dips for particular values of the magnetic flux piercing the ring. We analyze this effect by numerical and analytical means and show that the zero-temperature equilibrium conductance in fact presents these striking features which could be observed experimentally.     

Spin-polarized conductance induced by tunneling through a magnetic impurity

Using the zero mode method, we compute the conductance of a wire consisting of a magnetic impurity coupled to two Luttinger liquid leads characterized by the Luttinger exponent alpha(>or=1). We find for resonance conditions, in which the Fermi energy of the leads is close to a single particle energy of the impurity, that the conductance as a function of temperature is G approximately equal (e(2)/h)(T/T(F))(2(alpha-2)), whereas for off-resonance conditions the conductance is G approximately equal (e(2)/h)(T/T(F))(2(alpha-1)). By applying either a gate voltage or a magnetic field or both, one of the spin components can be in resonance while the other is off resonance causing a strong asymmetry between the spin-up and spin-down conductances.     

Resonantly enhanced nonlinear conductance in long quantum point contacts near pinch-off

We report on a remarkable resonance in the differential conductance of long quantum point contacts (QPCs) that is observed as a precursor to regular quantized transport. This effect is increasingly pronounced in longer QPCs, in which the differential conductance may resonantly exceed 2e2/h. From a study of the experimental characteristics of this feature, we suggest that it may be associated with the formation of a well-resolved energy gap that opens dynamically as a result of enhanced many-body interactions in long QPCs.     

Hall resistivity of granular metals

We calculate the Hall conductivity sigma(xy) and resistivity rho(xy) of a granular system at large tunneling conductance g(T)>1. We show that in the absence of Coulomb interaction the Hall resistivity depends neither on the tunneling conductance nor on the intragrain disorder and is given by the classical formula rho(xy)=H/(n*ec), where n* differs from the carrier density n inside the grains by a numerical coefficient determined by the shape of the grains. The Coulomb interaction gives rise to logarithmic in temperature T correction to rho(xy) in the range Gamma less or similar T less or similar min(g(T)E(c), E(Th)), where Gamma is the tunneling escape rate, E(c) is the charging energy, and E(Th) is the Thouless energy of the grain.     

Perfect spin filtering and conditions for Fano antiresonance and Dicke resonance in a parallel coupled triple quantum-dot array

Electronic transport through a parallel coupled triple quantum dot (tQD) array has been studied by means of nonequilibrium Green’s function formalism. By producing an energy difference between the site energy in the upper QDs and down ones, we find that the linear conductance spectrum of this tQD array displays Fano antiresonance and Dicke resonance effects. As the energy difference increases or the tQD chain length increases to a not very large value, the antiresonance valley in the conductance changes to a well-defined insulating band with very steep edges. Meanwhile, the relations of the Fano antiresonance and the well-defined insulating band are explored, and the conditions for the Fano antiresonance and the Dicke resonance are presented. By introducing a Zeeman splitting due to an external magnetic field, the spin-splitting conductance spectrum shows some highly to 100% spin-polarized windows (SPWs). If a gate voltage runs in these SPWs, we can achieve an entirely spin-polarized current, indicating that such a tQD array can be used as a perfect spin filter and a quantum-signal generator. Moreover, the intradot Coulomb repulsion on the electronic transport is also investigated. The results show that the intradot Coulomb repulsion does not affect the device applications for this system mentioned above.     

Anomalous behavior of superconducting-normal mesoscopic structures near T(c)

We observe a maximum in the conductance of Al/n-GaAs junctions at temperatures 20 mK lower than the superconducting transition temperature (T(c)). This is the first observation of a peak in the conductance near the superconducting transition in superconducting-normal (S/N) junctions. To accommodate this effect we calculate the full temperature dependence of the conductance of these structures, invoking quasiclassical Green's functions in the diffusive limit. In addition to the well-known low-temperature peak at temperatures on the order of the Thouless energy, we find a maximum near T(c). This peak has the same origin as the subgap conductance observed in S/N junctions at low temperatures.     

Conductance distribution at criticality: one‐dimensional Anderson model with random long‐range hopping

We study numerically the conductance distribution function w(T) for the one‐dimensional Anderson model with random long‐range hopping described by the Power‐law Banded Random Matrix model at criticality. We concentrate on the case of two single‐channel leads attached to the system. We observe a smooth transition from localized to delocalized behavior in the conductance distribution by increasing b, the effective bandwidth of the model. Also, for b < 1 we show that w(ln T/T_typ) is scale invariant, where T_typ = exp 〈 ln T 〉 is the typical value of T. Moreover, we find that for T < T_typ, w(ln T/T_typ) shows a universal behavior proportional to (T/T_typ)^‐1/2.     

Transport properties of granular metals at low temperatures

We investigate transport in a granular metallic system at large tunneling conductance between the grains, g(T)>1. We show that at low temperatures, Tg(T)delta) behavior where conductivity is controlled by the scales of the order of the grain size. In three dimensions we predict the metal-insulator transition at the bare tunneling conductance g(C)(T)=(1/6pi)ln((E(C)/delta), where E(C) is the charging energy of a single grain. Corrections to the density of states of granular metals due to the electron-electron interaction are calculated. Our results compare favorably with the logarithmic dependence of resistivity in the high-T(c) cuprate superconductors indicating that these materials may have a granular structure.     

Single electron tunneling at large conductance: The semiclassical approach

We study the linear conductance of single electron devices showing Coulomb blockade phenomena. Our approach is based on a formally exact path integral representation describing electron tunneling nonperturbatively. The electromagnetic environment of the device is treated in terms of the Caldeira-Leggett model. We obtain the linear conductance from the Kubo formula leading to a formally exact expression which is evaluated in the semiclassical limit. Specifically we consider three models. First, the influence of an electromagnetic environment of arbitrary impedance on a single tunnel junction is studied focusing on the limits of large tunneling conductance and high to moderately low temperatures. The predictions are compared with recent experimental data. Second, the conductance of an array of N tunnel junctions is determined in dependence on the length N of the array and the environmental impedance. Finally, we consider a single electron transistor and compare our results for large tunneling conductance with experimental findings. Received 2 February 2000     

Kondo universal scaling for a quantum dot coupled to superconducting leads

We study competition between the Kondo effect and superconductivity in a single self-assembled InAs quantum dot contacted with Al lateral electrodes. Because of Kondo enhancement of Andreev reflections, the zero-bias anomaly develops side peaks, separated by the superconducting gap energy Delta. For ten valleys of different Kondo temperature T(K) we tune the gap Delta with an external magnetic field. We find that the zero-bias conductance in each case collapses onto a single curve with Delta/k(B)T(K) as the only relevant energy scale, providing experimental evidence for universal scaling in this system.     

Extraordinary electron transmission through a periodic array of quantum dots

We study electron transmission through a periodic array of quantum dots (QD) sandwiched between doped semiconductor leads. When the Fermi wavelength of tunneling electron exceeds the array lattice constant, the off-resonant per QD conductance is enhanced by several orders of magnitude relative to the single-QD conductance. The physical mechanism of the enhancement is delocalization of a small fraction of system eigenstates caused by coherent coupling of QDs via the electron continuum in the leads.     

Scanning tunneling spectrosopy study of DNA conductivity

We used STM to study the conductivity of 32 nucleotide long DNA molecules chemically attached to a gold surface. Two oligonucleotides containing all four base types namely G, A, C, T, one single stranded and one double helical, all showed conductance data significantly higher than DNA containing only T and A that were either single stranded d(T32) or double helical d(T32).d(A32) in confirmation. Within each sequence group, the conductivity of the double helical form was always higher than that of the single strand. We discuss the impact of structure, particular base stacking and affinity to the phase transition.      

Electronic transport in a side-coupled triple quantum dot array

The electronic transport through a side-coupled triple quantum dot array (QDA) is investigated by means of Green function technique within the tight-binding framework. We obtain the formula of the linear conductance of QDA. The linear conductance spectrum is numerically studied. We discuss the feasibility of applying our structure to the electron spin polarized device and calculate the ratio of the spin polarized current flows.     

Spiral breakup in an array of coupled cells: the role of the intercellular conductance

We study numerically how the intercellular conductance affects the process of spiral breakup in an array of coupled excitable cells. The cell dynamics are described by the Aliev-Panfilov model, and the intercellular connection is made via Ohmic elements. We find that decreasing intercellular conductance can prevent the breaking up of a spiral wave into a complex spatiotemporal pattern. We study the mechanism of this effect and show that the breakup disappears because of increasing the diastolic interval of an initial spiral wave.     

Pressure control of conducting channels in single-wall carbon nanotube networks

We measure electrical transport on networks of single-wall nanotube ropes as a function of temperature T, voltage V, and pressure up to 22 GPa. We observe Luttinger liquid (LL) behavior, a conductance proportional to T(alpha), and a dynamic conductance proportional to V(alpha). With pressure, conductance increases while alpha decreases, enabling us to test the theoretical prediction for LL behavior on the alpha dependence of the T and V independent coefficient of the tunneling conductance, and to obtain the high frequency cutoff of LL modes. The possible transition to a Fermi liquid at alpha-->0 is unattainable, as nanotubes collapse to an insulating state at high pressures.     

Conductance peaks in open quantum dots

We present a simple measure of the conductance fluctuations in open ballistic chaotic quantum dots, extending the number of maxima method originally proposed for the statistical analysis of compound nuclear reactions. The average number of extreme points (maxima and minima) in the dimensionless conductance T as a function of an arbitrary external parameter Z is directly related to the autocorrelation function of T(Z). The parameter Z can be associated with an applied gate voltage causing shape deformation in quantum dot, an external magnetic field, the Fermi energy, etc. The average density of maxima is found to be <ρ(Z)>=α(Z)/Z(c), where α(Z) is a universal constant and Z(c) is the conductance autocorrelation length, which is system specific. The analysis of <ρ(Z)> does not require large statistic samples, providing a quite amenable way to access information about parametric correlations, such as Z(c).     

Coherent electronic properties of coupled two-dimensional quantum dot arrays

In this paper we review our recent study of coherent electronic properties of coupled two-dimensional quantum dot arrays using numerical exact-diagonalization methods on a Mott–Hubbard type correlated tight-binding model. We predict the existence of a novel kind of persistent current in a two-dimensionalisolatedarray of quantum dots in a transverse magnetic field. We calculate the conductance spectrum for resonant tunneling transport through a coherent two-dimensional array of quantum dots in the Coulomb Blockade regime. We also calculate the effective two-terminal capacitance of an array coupled to bias leads.     

Kondo model for the "0.7 anomaly" in transport through a quantum point contact

Experiments on quantum point contacts have highlighted an anomalous conductance plateau around 0.7(2e(2)/h), with features suggestive of the Kondo effect. Here, an Anderson model for transport through a point contact analyzed in the Kondo limit. Hybridization to the band increases abruptly with energy but decreases with valence, so that the background conductance and the Kondo temperature T(K) are dominated by different valence transitions. This accounts for the high residual conductance above T(K). The model explains the observed gate-voltage, temperature, magnetic field, and bias-voltage dependences. A spin-polarized current is predicted even for low magnetic fields.