Finite-size effects in conductance measurements on quantum dots

The observation of the Kondo effect in quantum dots has provided new opportunities to finally observe the controversial Kondo screening cloud. Here we study the conductance of a quantum dot embedded in a finite length quantum wire, predicting a change in behavior when the length of the wire is comparable to the size of the screening cloud.     

Transport through quantum dots in mesoscopic circuits

We study the transport through a quantum dot, in the Kondo Coulomb blockade valley, embedded in a mesoscopic device with finite wires. The quantization of states in the circuit that hosts the quantum dot gives rise to finite size effects. These effects make the conductance sensitive to the ratio of the Kondo screening length to the wires length and provide a way of measuring the Kondo cloud. We present results obtained with the numerical renormalization group for a wide range of physically accessible parameters.     

Screening Clouds and Majorana Fermions

Ken Wilson developed the Numerical Renormalization Group technique which greatly enhanced our understanding of the Kondo effect and other quantum impurity problems. Wilson’s NRG also inspired Philippe Nozières to propose the idea of a large “Kondo screening cloud”. While much theoretical evidence has accumulated for this idea it has remained somewhat controversial and has not yet been confirmed experimentally. Recently a new possibility for observing an analogous crossover length scale has emerged, involving a Majorana fermion localized at the interface between a topological superconductor quantum wire and a normal wire. We give an overview of this topic both with and without interactions included in the normal wire.     

Mesoscopic Kondo screening effect in a single-electron transistor embedded in a metallic ring.

We study the Kondo screening effect generated by a single-electron transistor or quantum dot embedded in a small metallic ring. When the ring circumference L becomes comparable to the fundamental length scale xi(0)(K) = Planck's constant over upsilon(F)/T(0)(K) associated with the bulk Kondo temperature, the Kondo resonance is strongly affected, depending on the total number of electrons (mod4) and magnetic flux threading the ring. The resulting Kondo-assisted persistent currents are also calculated in both Kondo and mixed-valence regimes, and the maximum values are found in the crossover region.     

Fano Interference versus Kondo Effect in Strongly Correlated T-Shaped Quantum Dots Embedded in an Aharonov-Bohm Ring

We theoretically investigate the properties of the ground state of the strongly correlated T-shaped double quantum dots embedded in an Aharonov-Bohm ring in the Kondo regime by means of the one-impurity Anderson Hamiltonian. It is found that in this system, the persistent current depends sensitively on the parity and size of the ring. With the increase of interdot coupling, the persistent current is suppressed due to the enhancing Fano interference weakening the Kondo effect. Moreover, when the spin of quantum dot embedded in the Aharonov- Bohm ring is screened, the persistent current peak is not affected by interdot coupling. Thus this model may be a new candidate for detecting Kondo screening cloud.     

Spin correlations and finite-size effects in the one-dimensional kondo box

We analyze the Kondo effect of a magnetic impurity attached to an ultrasmall metallic wire using the density matrix renormalization group. The spatial spin correlation function and the impurity spectral density are computed for system sizes of up to L=511 sites, covering the crossover from Ll{K}, with l{K} the spin screening length. We establish a proportionality between the weight of the Kondo resonance and l{K} as a function of L. This suggests a spectroscopic way of detecting the Kondo cloud.     

Kondo screening cloud around a quantum dot: large-scale numerical results

Measurements of the persistent current in a ring containing a quantum dot would afford a unique opportunity to finally detect the elusive Kondo screening cloud. We present the first large-scale numerical results on this controversial subject using exact diagonalization and density matrix renormalization group (RG). These extremely challenging numerical calculations confirm RG arguments for weak to strong coupling crossover with varying ring length and give results on the universal scaling functions. We also study, analytically and numerically, the important and surprising effects of particle-hole symmetry breaking.     

Spatially dependent Kondo effect in quantum corrals

We study the Kondo screening of a single magnetic impurity inside a nonmagnetic quantum corral located on the surface of a metallic host system. We show that the spatial structure of the corral's eigenmodes leads to a spatially dependent Kondo effect whose signatures are spatial variations of the Kondo temperature T K. Moreover, we predict that the Kondo screening is accompanied by the formation of multiple Kondo resonances with characteristic spatial patterns. Our results open new possibilities to manipulate and explore the Kondo effect by using quantum corrals.     

嵌入T型耦合双量子点介观A-B环系统的显著Fano 效应

利用平均场近似理论,研究了一个嵌入T型弱耦合双量子点的介观环系统的基态性质. 结果表明,体系中复杂的基态性质源于Kondo效应与Fano效应相互竞争. 当介观环的尺寸达到足以产生完全Kondo共振时,随双量子点间耦合强度的增强,尖锐的持续电流峰出现了,且越发显著,这说明体系中存在着显著的Fano 效应. 但介观环的Kondo共振持续电流峰值却几乎不发生变化,这为测定Kondo 屏蔽云提供了一个新的可能模型. 关键词： 耦合量子点 持续电流 Kondo效应 Fano 效应     

Oscillations of the magnetic polarization in a Kondo system at finite magnetic fields

The electronic properties of a Kondo impurity are investigated in a magnetic field using linear response theory. The distribution of electrical charge and magnetic polarization are calculated in real space. The (small) magnetic field does not change the charge distribution. However, it unmasks the Kondo cloud and generates a Kondo polarization. The weight of the d-electron components with their magnetic moment up and down is shifted and the compensating moments of the s-electron clouds don’t cancel any longer (a requirement for an experimental detection of the Kondo cloud). In addition to the polarization cloud (of the conduction electrons) an oscillating polarization component with a period of half the Fermi wave length is observed. This represents an internal electronic structure of the Kondo impurity.     

Modified Debye screening potential in a magnetized quantum plasma

The effects of quantum mechanical influence and uniform static magnetic field on the Shukla-Nambu-Salimullah potential in an ultracold homogeneous electron-ion Fermi plasma have been examined in detail. It is noticed that the strong quantum effect arising through the Bohm potential and the ion polarization effect can give rise to a new oscillatory behavior of the screening potential beyond the shielding cloud which could explain a new type of possible robust ordered structure formation in the quantum magnetoplasma. However, the magnetic field enhances the Debye length perpendicular to the magnetic field in the weak quantum limit of the quantum plasma.     

Effect of localized spins in coherent transport through quantum dots

The effect of localized spins on the quantum coherence in solids is discussed. A quantum dot with an odd number of electrons can be a model system for a localized spin. It is experimentally shown that a spin flip scattering by a quantum dot pulls the trigger of quantum decoherence. On the other hand, spin flip scattering is the basic process to construct the Kondo singlet state around a magnetic impurity. Through an interference effect of the Kondo state (the Fano–Kondo effect) in a side-coupled dot system, we show experimentally that the Kondo singlet state is quantum mechanically coherent. The analysis of the Fano–Kondo lineshape indicates the locking of the phase shift to π/2, which is in agreement with theoretical predictions. The Fano–Kondo effect is also observed in an Aharonov–Bohm ring, in which a quantum dot is embedded, and also indicates the phase shift locking to π/2.     

嵌入单量子点Aharonov-Bohm环中的近藤效应

使用单杂质的Ansderson模型, 从理论上研究了一个嵌入单量子点Aharonov-Bohm环系统处在 近藤区时的基态性质, 并用slave-boson平均场方法求解了该模型.结果表明：在零温, 当介 观环内电子平均能级间隔大于近藤关联能时, 系统内仍然存在一个被减弱了的近藤效应；系 统的基态性质依赖于系统的宇称和环的大小；而尺寸效应和近藤屏蔽效应的共存导致了系统 丰富的物理性质.同时, 可以通过测量介观环中的持续电流和杂质磁化率, 达到探测近藤屏 蔽云的目的. 关键词： 持续电流 杂质磁化率 宇称效应 近藤效应 近藤屏蔽云     

Finite-size effect and Kondo screening effect in an A-B ring with a quantum dot

The properties of the ground state of a closed dot－ring system with a magnetic flux in the Kondo regime are studied theoretically by means of a one-impurity Anderson Hamiltonian. The Hamiltonian is solved by means of the slave-boson mean-field theory. It is shown that at T=0, a suppressed Kondo effect exists in this system even when the mean level spacing of electrons in the ring is larger than the bulk Kondo temperature. The physical quantities depend sensitively on both the parity of the system and the size of the ring; the rich physical behaviour can be attributed to the coexistence of both the finite-size effect and the Kondo screening effect. It is also possible to detect the Kondo screening cloud by measuring the persistent current or the zero field impurity susceptibility χ_{imp} directly in future experiments.     

Relevance of ferromagnetic correlations for the electron spin resonance in Kondo lattice systems

Electron spin resonance (ESR) measurements of the ferromagnetic (FM) Kondo lattice system CeRuPO show a well defined ESR signal which is related to the Ce3+ magnetism. In contrast, no ESR could be observed in the antiferromagnetic (AFM) homologue CeOsPO. Additionally, we detect an ESR signal in ferromagnetic YbRh while it was absent in a number of Ce or Yb intermetallic compounds with dominant AFM exchange. Thus, the observation of an ESR signal in a Kondo lattice is neither specific to Yb nor to the proximity to a quantum critical point, but seems to be connected to the presence of FM fluctuations. These conclusions not only provide a basic concept to understand the ESR in Kondo lattice systems even well below the Kondo temperature (as observed in YbRh2Si2) but point out ESR as a prime method to investigate directly the spin dynamics of the Kondo ion.     

The persistent current in an Aharonov－Bohm ring with a side-coupled quantum dot

We have investigated the persistent current in a mesoscopic ring with a side-coupled quantum dot. The problems are probed by using the one-impurity Anderson Hamiltonian and are treated with the slave boson mean field theory. It is shown that the persistent current in this system has the spin fluctuations, and the charge transfers between the two subsystems are suppressed in the limit of Δ/T_K^0《1. The minimum value of the persistent current for ξ_K/L=5 of the odd parity system provides an opportunity to detect the Kondo screening cloud.     

Two-stage Kondo effect in a quantum dot at a high magnetic field

We report a strong Kondo effect (Kondo temperature approximately 4 K) at high magnetic field in a selective area growth semiconductor quantum dot. The Kondo effect is ascribed to a singlet-triplet transition in the ground state of the dot. At the transition, the low-temperature conductance approaches the unitary limit. Away from the transition, for low bias voltages and temperatures, the conductance is sharply reduced. The observed behavior is compared to predictions for a two-stage Kondo effect in quantum dots coupled to single-channel leads.     

Dynamics of a tunneling magnetic impurity: Kondo effect induced incoherence

We study how the formation of the Kondo compensation cloud influences the dynamical properties of a magnetic impurity that tunnels between two positions in a metal. The Kondo effect dynamically generates a strong tunneling impurity-conduction electron coupling, changes the temperature dependence of the tunneling rate, and may ultimately result in the destruction of the coherent motion of the particle at zero temperature. We find an interesting two-channel Kondo fixed point as well for a vanishing overlap between the electronic states that screen the magnetic impurity. We propose experiments where the predicted features could be observed.     

Controlled dephasing of a quantum dot in the Kondo regime

Kondo correlation in a spin polarized quantum dot (QD) results from the dynamical formation of a spin singlet between the dot's net spin and a Kondo cloud of electrons in the leads, leading to enhanced coherent transport through the QD. We demonstrate here significant dephasing of such transport by coupling the QD and its leads to potential fluctuations in a nearby "potential detector." The qualitative dephasing is similar to that of a QD in the Coulomb blockade regime in spite of the fact that the mechanism of transport is quite different. A much stronger than expected suppression of coherent transport is measured, suggesting that dephasing is induced mostly in the "Kondo cloud" of electrons within the leads and not in the QD.     

Probing a Kondo-correlated quantum dot with spin spectroscopy

We investigate the Kondo effect and spin blockade observed in a many-electron quantum dot and study the magnetic field dependence. At lower fields, a pronounced Kondo effect is found, which is replaced by the spin blockade at higher fields. In an intermediate regime, both effects are visible. We make use of this combined effect to gain information about the internal spin configuration of our quantum dot. We find that the data cannot be explained assuming regular filling of electronic orbitals. Instead, spin polarized filling seems to be probable.