The effect of the interdot Coulomb interaction on Kondo resonances in series-coupled double quantum dots

We theoretically investigate the effect of the interdot Coulomb repulsion on Kondo resonances in the series-coupled double quantum dot coupled to two ferromagnetic leads. The Hamiltonian of our system is solved by means of the slave-boson mean-field approximation, and the variation of the density of states, the transmission probability, the occupation number, and the Kondo temperature with the interdot Coulomb repulsion are discussed in the Kondo regime. The density of states is calculated for various interdot Coulomb repulsions with both parallel and antiparallel lead-polarization alignments. Our results reveal that the interdot Coulomb repulsion greatly influences the physical property of this system, and relevant underlying physics of this system is discussed.     

Transition from the Kondo effect to a Coulomb blockade in an electron shuttle

We investigate the effect of the mechanical motion of a quantum dot on the transport properties of a quantum dot shuttle.Employing the equation of motion method for the nonequilibrium Green’s function,we show that the oscillation of the dot,i.e.,the time-dependent coupling between the dot’s electron and the reservoirs,can destroy the Kondo effect.With the increase in the oscillation frequency of the dot,the density of states of the quantum dot shuttle changes from the Kondo-like to a Coulomb-blockade pattern.Increasing the coupling between the dot and the electrodes may partly recover the Kondo peak in the spectrum of the density of states.Understanding of the effect of mechanical motion on the transport properties of an electron shuttle is important for the future application of nanoelectromechanical devices.     

Effect of topology on the transport properties of two interacting dots

The transport properties of a system of two interacting dots, one of them directly connected to the leads constituting a side-coupled configuration (SCD), are studied in the weak and strong tunnel-coupling limits. The conductance behavior of the SCD structure has new and richer physics than the better-studied system of two dots aligned with the leads (ACD). In the weak coupling regime and in the case of one electron per dot, the ACD configuration gives rise to two mostly independent Kondo states. In the SCD topology, the inserted dot is in a Kondo state while the side-connected one presents Coulomb blockade properties. Moreover, the dot spins change their behavior, from an antiferromagnetic coupling to a ferromagnetic correlation, as a consequence of the interaction with the conduction electrons. The system is governed by the Kondo effect related to the dot that is embedded into the leads. The role of the side-connected dot is to introduce, when at resonance, a new path for the electrons to go through giving rise to the interferences responsible for the suppression of the conductance. These results depend on the values of the intra-dot Coulomb interactions. In the case where the many-body interaction is restricted to the side-connected dot, its Kondo correlation is responsible for the scattering of the conduction electrons giving rise to the conductance suppression.Received: 7 February 2004, Published online: 24 September 2004PACS: 73.63.-b Electronic transport in nanoscale materials and structures - 73.63.Kv Quantum dots     

AC Conductance Through a Vibrating Molecular Dot in Kondo Regime

In the present paper, by applying the Lang-Firsov canonical transformation and the so-called non-crossing approximation technique, we investigate the joint effects of the electron-phonon interaction and an external alternating gate voltage on the transport of a quantum dot system in the Kondo regime. We find that, while the satellite Kondo resonant peaks appear in both the averaged local density of states and the differential conductance, the main Kondo peak at the Fermi energy is greatly suppressed. These results confirm the previous ones derived by other methods, such as the equation of motion solution. Furthermore, based on the picture of virtual transition between quasi-eigenstates in the system, we also give a slightly different explanation on these phenomena.     

Nonequilibrium Keldysh formalism for interacting leads—Application to quantum dot transport driven by spin bias

The conductance through a mesoscopic system of interacting electrons coupled to two adjacent leads is conventionally derived via the Keldysh nonequilibrium Green’s function technique, in the limit of noninteracting leads [Y. Meir, N.S. Wingreen, Phys. Rev. Lett. 68 (1992) 2512]. We extend the standard formalism to cater for a quantum dot system with Coulombic interactions between the quantum dot and the leads. The general current expression is obtained by considering the equation of motion of the time-ordered Green’s function of the system. The nonequilibrium effects of the interacting leads are then incorporated by determining the contour-ordered Green’s function over the Keldysh loop and applying Langreth’s theorem. The dot–lead interactions significantly increase the height of the Kondo peaks in density of states of the quantum dot. This translates into two Kondo peaks in the spin differential conductance when the magnitude of the spin bias equals that of the Zeeman splitting. There also exists a plateau in the charge differential conductance due to the combined effect of spin bias and the Zeeman splitting. The low-bias conductance plateau with sharp edges is also a characteristic of the Kondo effect. The conductance plateau disappears for the case of asymmetric dot–lead interaction.     

Quantum transport across multilevel quantum dot

The conductance across a quantum dot can be influenced by levels localized in the dot and having little hybridization with the conduction channel. Fano lineshapes arising in resonant transmission measurements, imply interference between the localized and extended states. By applying a magnetic orthogonal field, the total spin of a quantum dot can be tuned. Electron correlations drive the dot through level crossings to higher spin states. Such crossings can give rise to Kondo conductance when the dot is at Coulomb blockade close to a magnetic field induced level degeneracy. In a previous work [P. Stefański, A. Tagliacozzo, B.R. Bulka, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93 (2004) 186805] we have shown that a Fano-like pattern also appears when the continuum of the conduction states originates from a broad Kondo resonance. A bunch of localized core levels, weakly coupled to the Kondo resonance, imprints the broad Kondo peak with Fano lineshapes. A signature of the presence of correlations in the quantum dot is discussed.     

Shot noise through a quantum dot in the Kondo regime

The shot noise in the current through a quantum dot is calculated as a function of voltage from the high-voltage Coulomb-blockaded regime to the low-voltage Kondo regime. Using several complementary approaches, it is shown that the zero-frequency shot noise (scaled by the voltage) exhibits a nonmonotonic dependence on voltage, with a peak around the Kondo temperature. Beyond giving a good estimate of the Kondo temperature, it is shown that the shot noise yields additional information on the effects of electronic correlations on the local density of states in the Kondo regime, unaccessible in traditional transport measurements.     

Kondo effect of a quantum dot coupling indirectly to the conduction electrons

When a quantum dot in the Kondo regime couples to two leads (the conduction electron reservoirs) indirectly through intermediate electron levels, two features are noteworthy concerning the Kondo effect. First, the Kondo peak in the spectrum of local density of states becomes narrower as the coupling to the leads is much larger than the interdot coupling, which is just opposite to the case of direct dot-lead coupling. Secondly, the increment of the coupling to the leads and the deviation of the intermediate levels from the Fermi level can effectively facilitate the formation of the negative differential conductance.     

The role of the indirect tunneling processes and asymmetry in couplings in orbital Kondo transport through double quantum dots

A system of two quantum dots attached to external electrodes is considered theoretically in the orbital Kondo regime. In general, the double dot system is coupled via both Coulomb interaction and direct hopping. Moreover, the indirect hopping processes between the dots (through the leads) are also taken into account. To investigate the system's electronic properties we apply the slave-boson mean field (SBMF) technique. With the help of the SBMF approach the local density of states for both dots and the transmission (as well as linear and differential conductance) is calculated. We show that Dicke- and Fano-like line shapes may emerge in the transport characteristics of the double dot system. Moreover, we observed that these modified Kondo resonances are very susceptible to the change of the indirect coupling's strength. We have also shown that the Kondo temperature becomes suppressed with increasing asymmetry in the dot-lead couplings when there is no indirect coupling. Moreover, when the indirect coupling is turned on the Kondo temperature becomes suppressed. By allowing a relative sign of the nondiagonal elements of the coupling matrix with left and right electrodes, we extend our investigations to become more generic. Finally, we have also included the level renormalization effects due to indirect tunneling, which are mostly neglected.     

Quantum dot in the Kondo regime coupled to superconductors

The Kondo effect and superconductivity are both prime examples of many-body phenomena. Here we report transport measurements on a carbon nanotube quantum dot coupled to superconducting leads that show a delicate interplay between both effects. We demonstrate that the superconductivity of the leads does not destroy the Kondo correlations on the quantum dot when the Kondo temperature, which varies for different single-electron states, exceeds the superconducting gap energy.     

Transport through artificial single-molecule magnets: Spin-pair state sequential tunneling and Kondo effects

The transport properties of an artificial single-molecule magnet based on a CdTe quantum dot doped with a single Mn+2 ion(S=5/2) are investigated by the non-equilibrium Green function method.We consider a minimal model where the Mn-hole exchange coupling is strongly anisotropic so that spin-flip is suppressed and the impurity spin S and a hole spin s entering the quantum dot are coupled into spin pair states with(2S+1) sublevels.In the sequential tunneling regime,the differential conductance exhibits(2S+1) possible peaks,corresponding to resonance tunneling via(2S+1) sublevels.At low temperature,Kondo physics dominates transport and(2S+1) Kondo peaks occur in the local density of states and conductance.These peaks originate from the spin-singlet state formed by the holes in the leads and on the dot via higher-order processes and are related to the parallel and antiparallel spin pair states.     

Quantum dot in the pseudogap Kondo state

We investigate the transport properties of a (small) quantum dot connected to Fermi liquid leads with a power-law density of states (DOS). Such a system, if experimentally realizable, will have interesting physical properties including: (i) non-saturating Coulomb blockade peak widths; (ii) a non-unitary Kondo peak symmetrically placed between Coulomb blockade peaks; (iii) an absence of conductance away from particle-hole symmetry at sufficiently low temperatures; and (iv) evidence of a quantum critical point as a function of dot-lead hopping. These properties are compared and contrasted with one dimensional Luttinger systems exhibiting a power-law “tunneling-DOS”.     

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.     

Multipeak Kondo effect in one- and two-electron quantum dots

We have fabricated a few-electron quantum dot that can be tuned down to zero electrons while maintaining strong coupling to the leads. Using a nearby quantum point contact as a charge sensor, we can determine the absolute number of electrons in the quantum dot. We find several sharp peaks in the differential conductance, occurring at both zero and finite source-drain bias, for the one- and two-electron quantum dot. We attribute the peaks at finite bias to a Kondo effect through excited states of the quantum dot and investigate the magnetic field dependence of these Kondo resonances.     

Enhancement of kondo effect in quantum dots with an even number of electrons

We investigate the Kondo effect in a quantum dot with almost degenerate spin-singlet and triplet states for an even number of electrons. We show that the Kondo temperature as a function of the energy difference between the states Delta reaches its maximum around Delta = 0 and decreases with increasing Delta. The Kondo effect is thus enhanced by competition between singlet and triplet states. Our results explain recent experimental findings. We evaluate the linear conductance in the perturbative regime.     

Spin polarized Kondo transport through a quantum dot connected to ferromagnetic leads

We study the spin dependent transport through a quantum dot connected to ferromagnetic leads. Using the non-equilibrium generalization of the non-crossing approximation for finite Coulomb repulsion U, we compute the spin polarized conductance, the local average occupancies and the local densities of states in the Kondo regime. We show that transport properties are strongly affected if we allow double occupancy by using a finite value for U. In the framework of our model, we have successfully reproduced the recent experimental finding of an electrically controlled magnetic moment on a carbon nanotube quantum dot coupled to ferromagnetic nickel leads [3]. Besides, in addition to the well known splitting of the Kondo peak in the density of states due to the presence of ferromagnetic leads, we find that the additional splitting due to non-zero bias voltage leads to an unexpected increase of the total conductance, which has also been observed by Hauptmann et al.     

T型耦合双量子点系统的非对等Kondo共振分裂传输

利用隶玻色子平均场近似理论,并借助于单杂质的Anderson模型的哈密顿量,研究了T型耦合双量子点嵌入正常电极的基态输运性质.结果表明：在体系处于平衡状态时,随着双量子点的耦合强度增加,体系的Kondo 效应被削弱. 当耦合强度足够强时,Kondo量子点态密度的Kondo共振单峰分裂成两个不对等的Kondo共振双峰.在体系处于非平衡状态时,增加两电极的偏压,态密度的Kondo分裂的非对等性明显加强. 关键词： Kondo效应 态密度 格林函数法 耦合双量子点     

Entanglement switching via the Kondo effect in triple quantum dots

We consider a triple quantum dot system in a triangular geometry with one of the dots connected to metallic leads. Using Wilson’s numerical renormalization group method, we investigate quantum entanglement and its relation to the thermodynamic and transport properties in the regime where each of the dots is singly occupied on average, but with non-negligible charge fluctuations. It is shown that even in the regime of significant charge fluctuations the formation of the Kondo singlets induces switching between separable and perfectly entangled states. The quantum phase transition between unentangled and entangled states is analyzed quantitatively and the corresponding phase diagram is explained by exactly solvable spin model. In the framework of an effective model we also explain smearing of the entanglement transition for cases when the symmetry of the triple quantum dot system is relaxed.     

相互作用量子点系统中的场致自旋电流

从理论上研究了相互作用量子点在外部旋转磁场下的非平衡自旋输运性质，研究结果表明，量子点中的相干自旋振荡可以导致自旋电流的产生，当计入库仑关联相互作用后，近藤共振效应受外部进动磁场的影响很强，特别是当磁场的进动频率与塞曼能移满足共振条件时，每个自旋近藤峰就会劈裂为两个自旋共振峰的叠加，在低温强耦合区，这种近藤型共隧穿过程对自旋电流带来重要贡献。     

Spin current through a quantum dot in the presence of an oscillating magnetic field

Nonequilibrium spin transport through an interacting quantum dot is analyzed. The coherent spin oscillations in the dot provide a generating source for spin current. In the interacting regime, the Kondo effect is influenced in a significant way by the presence of the processing magnetic field. In particular, when the precession frequency is tuned to resonance between spin-up and spin-down states of the dot, Kondo singularity for each spin splits into a superposition of two resonance peaks. The Kondo-type cotunneling contribution is manifested by a large enhancement of the pumped spin current in the strong coupling low temperature regime.