AC shot noise through a quantum dot in the Kondo regime

The photon-assisted shot noise through a quantum dot in the Kondo regime is investigated by applying time-dependent canonical transformation and non-crossing approximation technique. A basic formula for the photon-assisted shot noise is obtained. The rich dependence of the shot noise on the external ac field and temperature is displayed. At low temperature and low frequencies, the differential shot noise exhibits staircase behavior. When the temperature increases, the steps are rounded. At elevated frequencies, the photon-assisted tunneling becomes more obvious. We have also found that the Fano factor is enhanced as the ac frequency is enhanced.     

Conductance and shot noise of inelastic tunneling through a quantum dot in the Kondo regime

We investigate the inelastic transport properties of a quantum dot connected to two leads, based on the combination of a recently developed nonperturbative technique and slave-boson methods involving the approximate mapping of the many-body electron–phonon coupling problem onto a multichannel scattering problem in the Kondo regime. The nonequilibrium Green's function method is adopted in calculations for the inelastic transport processes of electrons in the limit of large Coulomb interaction U→∞$U\to \infty$ under nonequilibrium conditions. The electron–phonon interactions, which are the main source of the inelasticity, are taken into account. For a single quantum dot, we find that the differential conductance and the shot noise exhibit new structures of peaks and dips which are absent in the case without electron–phonon interactions.     

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.     

AC shot noise through a vibrating quantum dot

In this paper we investigate the joint effects of the electron-phonon interaction and an external alternating (ac) gate voltage on the spectral density of shot noise through a vibrating quantum dot system, by applying the Lang-Firsov canonical transformation and the Keldysh nonequilibrium Green's function (NGF) technique. We find that the effects of the electron-phonon and electron-photon interaction on the differential shot noise are different. The main resonant peak of the differential shot noise is decreased only when a time-dependent gate voltage is imposed on quantum dot. With the ac field amplitude increasing, the main resonant peak of the differential shot noise decreases. The Fano factor of the system, which exhibits the deviation of shot noise from the Schottky formula, is also studied. Super-Poissonian shot noise appears due to the photon absorption (emission) processes in the low bias voltage region.     

Photon-assisted shot noise due to the charging effect in a quantum dot device

We have investigated the spectral density of shot noise for an ultra-small quantum dot(QD) system in the Coulomb blockade regime when irradiated with microwave fields (MWFs) by employing a nonequilibrium Green’s function technique. The shot noise is sensitive to Coulomb interaction, and the photon-assisted Coulomb blockade behaviour strongly modifies the mesoscopic transport. We have calculated the first and second derivatives of shot noise in the strong and weak coupling regimes to compare the theoretical results with existing experimental results. In the strong coupling regime, the first and second derivatives of shot noise display Fano type peak-valley structures around the charging channel 2E _c due to Coulomb interaction. When the magnitudes of the MWFs are sufficiently large, the system displays channel blockade due to photon irradiation. The photon-assisted and Coulomb blockade steps in the noise — as well as the resonant behaviour in the differential noise — are smeared by increasing temperature. The Coulomb interaction suppresses the shot noise, but the ac fields can either suppress the shot noise(balanced case) or enhance the shot noise(unbalanced case). The suppression of shot noise caused by ac fields in the balanced case is greater than that caused by Coulomb interaction in our system. Super-Poissonian shot noise may be induced due to the compound effects of strong Coulomb interaction and photon absorption-emission processes.     

Measurement of quantum noise in a carbon nanotube quantum dot in the Kondo regime

The current emission noise of a carbon nanotube quantum dot in the Kondo regime is measured at frequencies ν of the order or higher than the frequency associated with the Kondo effect k(B)T (K)/h, with TK the Kondo temperature. The carbon nanotube is coupled via an on-chip resonant circuit to a quantum noise detector, a superconductor-insulator-superconductor junction. We find for hν ≈ k(B)T(K) a Kondo effect related singularity at a voltage bias eV ≈ hν, and a strong reduction of this singularity for hν ≈ 3k(B)T(K), in good agreement with theory. Our experiment constitutes a new original tool for the investigation of the nonequilibrium dynamics of many-body phenomena in nanoscale devices.     

Using a quantum dot as a high-frequency shot noise detector

We present the experimental realization of a quantum dot (QD) operating as a high-frequency noise detector. Current fluctuations produced in a nearby quantum point contact (QPC) ionize the QD and induce transport through excited states. The resulting transient current through the QD represents our detector signal. We investigate its dependence on the QPC transmission and voltage bias. We observe and explain a quantum threshold feature and a saturation in the detector signal. This experimental and theoretical study is relevant in understanding the backaction of a QPC used as a charge detector.     

Effects of fermi liquid interactions on the shot noise of an SU(N) Kondo quantum dot

We study shot noise in the current of quantum dots whose low-energy behavior corresponds to an SU(N) Kondo model, focusing on the case N=4 relevant to carbon nanotube dots. For general N, two-particle Fermi-liquid interactions have two distinct effects: they can enhance the noise via backscattering processes with an N-dependent effective charge, and can also modify the coherent partition noise already present without interactions. For N=4, in contrast with the SU(2) case, interactions enhance shot noise solely through an enhancement of partition noise. This leads to a nontrivial prediction for experiment.     

Photon-assisted shot noise through a quantum dot coupled to Luttinger liquid

Photon-assisted shot noise through a quantum dot coupled to Luttinger liquid leads is considered using nonequilibrium-Green-function-method. We find that the effect of ac field on the differential shot noise is different for different intralead electron interaction. The inelastic channels associated with photon-assisted-tunneling can dominate electron transport for some ac parameters.     

Photon-assisted Shot noise of the double quantum dot interferometer in weak Kondo regime

The shot noise of a parallel double quantum dot (DQD) system under the perturbation of microwave fields is investigated in the weak Kondo regime. Peak-valley structures exhibit in the differential conductance and shot noise, and side resonant peaks emerge around the Kondo peak due to the absorption and emission of photons. The shot noise is sensitively dependent on the adjusting approach through changing the gate voltages. Large resonant Fano factor accompanying photon-induced side peaks appear by simultaneously varying the two gate voltages. The photon suppression and enhancement of shot noise have been evaluated corresponding to the coherent and incoherent current correlation. The destructive interference causes the suppression of shot noise by changing the Aharonov–Bohm phase.     

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     

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.     

Thermopower of a Kondo spin-correlated quantum dot

The thermopower of a Kondo-correlated gate-defined quantum dot is studied using a current heating technique. In the presence of spin correlations, the thermopower shows a clear deviation from the semiclassical Mott relation between thermopower and conductivity. The strong thermopower signal indicates a significant asymmetry in the spectral density of states of the Kondo resonance with respect to the Fermi energies of the reservoirs. The observed behavior can be explained within the framework of an Anderson-impurity model.     

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 shot noise of the quantum dot weakly coupled to Luttinger liquid

We study the nonequilibrium transport through a single-level quantum dot weakly coupled to Luttinger liquid leads. A general shot noise expression is derived by using nonequilibrium Green function technique. We find that the differential shot noise and differential conductance demonstrate resonant-like behavior as a function of the bias voltage and the quantum dot's energy level for a weak or moderately strong interaction. In the limit of strong electron-electron interaction, the resonant behavior disappears and shows bias-voltage-dependent power law scalings. And the Fano factor also scales as a power law in high bias voltage region. In addition, the Fano factor is enhanced with the electron-electron interaction increased. It implies that the Fano factor can be controlled by tuning the electron-electron interaction in the leads.     

Tunable Kondo effect in a double quantum dot coupled to ferromagnetic contacts

We investigate the effects induced by ferromagnetic contacts attached to a serial double quantum dot. Spin polarization generates effective magnetic fields and suppresses the Kondo effect in each dot. The superexchange interaction J(AFM), tuned by the interdot tunneling rate t, can be used to compensate the effective fields and restore the Kondo resonance when the contact polarizations are aligned. As a consequence, the direction of the spin conductance can be controlled and even reversed using electrostatic gates alone. Our results demonstrate a new approach for controlling spin-dependent transport in carbon nanotube double dot devices.     

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.     

Observation of the Kondo effect in a spin-3/2 hole quantum dot

We report the observation of Kondo physics in a spin-3/2 hole quantum dot. The dot is formed close to pinch-off in a hole quantum wire defined in an undoped AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructure. We clearly observe two distinctive hallmarks of quantum dot Kondo physics. First, the Zeeman spin splitting of the zero-bias peak in the differential conductance is independent of the gate voltage. Second, this splitting is twice as large as the splitting for the lowest one-dimensional subband. We show that the Zeeman splitting of the zero-bias peak is highly anisotropic and attribute this to the strong spin-orbit interaction for holes in GaAs.     

The shot noise of a strongly correlated quantum dot coupled to the Luttinger liquid leads

We study the shot noise of a strongly correlated quantum dot weakly coupled to Luttinger liquid leads in the Kondo regime by means of the extended equation of motion method. A general zero-frequency shot noise formula with good convergence is derived. The shot noise exhibits a non-monotonic dependence on voltage for weak intralead interaction. There is a peak around the Kondo temperature at low voltage when the interaction is very weak, and its height decreases rapidly with the intralead interaction increasing. When the interaction is moderately strong the peak disappears and the shot noise scales as a power law in bias voltage, indicating that the intralead electron interaction suppresses the shot noise. It is possible that the measurements of the shot noise spectrum can extract the information of the intralead interaction.     

Tunability of the Kondo effect in an asymmetrically tunnel coupled quantum dot

The transport properties of a single quantum dot were measured at low temperature in a regime of strong asymmetric tunnel coupling to leads. By tuning this asymmetry, the two parameters of the Kondo effect in a quantum dot, the Kondo temperature and the zero-bias zero-temperature conductance, were independently controlled. A careful analysis of the Coulomb energies and of the tunnel couplings was performed. It allowed an estimate of the Kondo temperature independently of its value obtained via the temperature dependence of the conductance. Both are in good agreement. We finally compared our experimental data with an exact solution of the Kondo problem which provides the dependence of the differential conductance on temperature and source-drain voltage. Theoretical expectations fit quite well our experimental data in the equilibrium and out-of-equilibrium regimes.