A one-dimensional system of interacting electrons out of equilibrium is studied in the framework of the Luttinger liquid model. We analyze several setups and develop a theory of tunneling into such systems. A remarkable property of the problem is the absence of relaxation in energy distribution functions of left- and right-movers, yet the presence of the finite dephasing rate due to electron-electron scattering, which smears zero-bias-anomaly singularities in the tunneling density of states.
Using the appropriate fractionalization mechanism, we correctly derive the temperature (T) and interaction dependence of the electron lifetime $τ_F$ in Luttinger liquids. For strong enough interactions, we report that $(Tτ_F)\propto g$, with $g\ll 1$ being the standard Luttinger exponent; This reinforces that electrons are {\it not} good quasiparticles. We immediately emphasize that this is of importance for the detection of electronic interferences in ballistic 1D rings and carbon nanotubes, inducing ``dephasing'' (strong reduction of Aharonov-Bohm oscillations).
We consider a four-terminal Aharonov-Bohm interference setup formed out of two edges of a quantum spin Hall insulator, supporting helical Luttinger liquids (HLLs). We show that the temperature and bias dependence of the interference oscillations are linked to the amount of spin flips in tunneling between two HLLs which is a unique signature of a HLL. We predict that spin dephasing depends on the electron-electron (e-e) interaction but differently from the charge dephasing due to distinct dominant tunneling excitations. In contrast, in a spinful Luttinger liquid with SU(2) invariance, uncharged…
We report experimental temperature dependence of the amplitude of Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in the Laughlin quasiparticle interferometer. The results fit very well the thermal dephasing dependence predicted for a g = 1/3 chiral Luttinger liquid interferometer, and are clearly distinct from the activated behavior observed in single-particle resonant tunneling and Coulomb blockade devices. The small deviation from the zero-bias theory seen below 20 mK indicates yet unrecognized source of experimental decoherence, not included in theory.
We study the transport properties of interacting electrons in a disordered quantum wire within the framework of the Luttinger liquid model. The conductivity at finite temperature is nonzero only because of inelastic electron-electron scattering. We demonstrate that the notion of weak localization is applicable to the strongly correlated one-dimensional electron system. We calculate the relevant dephasing rate, which for spinless electrons is governed by the interplay of electron-electron interaction and disorder, thus vanishing in the clean limit.
We theoretically investigate the charge noise and dephasing in a metallic device in close proximity to a spin incoherent Luttinger liquid with a small but finite current. The frequency dependence of the charge noise exhibits a loss of frequency peaks corresponding to the $2k_F$ part of the density correlations in the electron liquid when the temperature $T$ is increased from values below the magnetic exchange energy $J$ of the electron gas to values above it. The dephasing rate in a nearby metallic nanostructure also shows a cross-over for $T \sim J$ and may exhibit a non-monotonic temperature…
Tunnelling density of states (DoS) in Luttinger liquid has a dip at zero energy, commonly known as the zero-bias anomaly (ZBA). In the presence of a magnetic field, in addition to the zero-bias anomaly, the DoS develops two peaks separated from the origin by the Zeeman energy. We find the shape of these peaks at arbitrary strength of the electron-electron interaction. The developed theory is applicable to various kinds of quantum wires, including carbon nanotubes.
We investigate the dephasing of mesoscopic interferences by electron-electron interactions in a strictly one-dimensional geometry composed of two weakly-coupled (clean and very long) Luttinger liquids. The main goal of this paper is to demonstrate that interactions in one dimension can produce a visible attenuation of Aharonov-Bohm oscillations. Through a Nyquist noise type description of the interactions and a direct (exact) calculation based on the Luttinger theory, in our setup we firmly emphasize that the dephasing time results from the electron fractionalization time.
We present theoretical calculations and experimental measurements which reveal the Luttinger-liquid (LL) nature of elementary excitations in a system consisting of two quantum wires connected by a long narrow tunnel junction at the edge of a GaAs/AlGaAs bilayer heterostructure. The boundaries of the wires are important and lead to a characteristic interference pattern in measurements on short junctions. We show that the experimentally observed modulation of the conductance oscillation amplitude as a function of the voltage bias can be accounted for by spin-charge separation of the elementary e…
A crossover theory connecting Altshuler-Aronov electron-electron interaction corrections and Luttinger liquid behavior in quasi-1D disordered conductors has been formulated. Based on an interacting non-linear sigma model, we compute the tunneling density of states and the interaction correction to the conductivity, covering the full crossover.
The dephasing rate of an electron level in a quantum dot, placed next to a fluctuating edge current in the fractional quantum Hall effect, is considered. Using perturbation theory, we first show that this rate has an anomalous dependence on the bias voltage applied to the neighboring quantum point contact, because of the Luttinger liquid physics which describes the fractional Hall fluid. Next, we describe exactly the weak to strong backscattering crossover using the Bethe-Ansatz solution.
The Luttinger liquid model, which describes interacting electrons in a single-channel quantum wire, is completely integrable in the absence of disorder and as such does not exhibit any relaxation to equilibrium. We consider relaxation processes induced by inelastic electron-electron interactions in a disordered Luttinger liquid, focusing on the equilibration rate and its essential differences from the electron-electron scattering rate as well as the rate of phase relaxation. In the first part of the paper, we review the basic concepts in the disordered Luttinger liquid at equilibrium. These in…
It is shown that a strong magnetic field applied to a bulk metal induces a Luttinger-liquid phase. This phase is characterized by the zero-bias anomaly in tunneling: the tunneling conductance scales as a power-law of voltage or temperature. The tunneling exponent increases with the magnetic field as BlnB. The zero-bias anomaly is most pronounced for tunneling with the field applied perpendicular to the plane of the tunneling junction.
Experimental and theoretical results for transport through crossed metallic single-wall nanotubes are presented. We observe a zero-bias anomaly in one tube which is suppressed by a current flowing through the other nanotube. The phenomenon is shown to be consistent with the picture of strongly correlated electrons within the Luttinger liquid model. The most relevant coupling between the nanotubes is the electrostatic interaction generated via crossing-induced backscattering processes. Explicit solution of a simplified model is able to describe qualitatively the observed experimental data with …
One-dimensional wires with Rashba spin-orbit coupling, magnetic field, and strong electron-electron interactions are described by a spiral Luttinger liquid model. We develop a theory to investigate the tunneling density of states into a spiral Luttinger liquid under the proximity effect with superconductors. This approach provides a way to disentangle the delicate interplay between superconducting correlations and strong electron interactions. If the wire-superconductor boundary is dominated by Andreev reflection, we find that in the vicinity of the interface the zero-bias tunneling anomaly re…
We derive, from first principles, the complete Luttinger liquid theory of abelian quantum Hall edge states. This theory includes the effects of disorder and Coulomb interactions as well as the coupling to external electromagnetic fields. We introduce a theory of spatially separated (individually conserved) edge modes, find an enlarged dual symmetry and obtain a complete classification of quasiparticle operators and tunneling exponents. The chiral anomaly on the edge and Laughlin's gauge argument are used to obtain unambiguously the Hall conductance. In resolving the problem of counter flowing …
We calculate the low-energy tunneling density of states $ν(ε, T)$ of an $N$-channel disordered wire, taking into account the electron-electron interaction non-perturbatively. The finite scattering rate $1/τ$ results in a crossover from the Luttinger liquid behavior at higher energies, $ν\proptoε^α$, to the exponential dependence $ν(ε, T=0)\propto \exp{(-ε^*/ε)}$ at low energies, where $ε^*\propto 1/(N τ)$. At finite temperature $T$, the tunneling density of states depends on the energy through the dimensionless variable $ε/\sqrt{ε^* T}$. At the Fermi level $ν(ε=0,T) \propto \exp (-\sqrt{ε^*/T}…
We develop a bosonization technique for one-dimensional fermions out of equilibrium. The approach is used to study a quantum wire attached to two electrodes with arbitrary energy distributions. The non-equilibrium electron Green function is expressed in terms of functional determinants of a single-particle``counting'' operator with a time-dependent scattering phase. The result reveals an intrinsic relation of dephasing and energy redistribution in Luttinger-liquids to ``fractionalization'' of electron-hole excitations in the tunneling process and at boundaries with leads.
We study the influence of spin on the quantum interference of interacting electrons in a single-channel disordered quantum wire within the framework of the Luttinger liquid (LL) model. The nature of the electron interference in a spinful LL is particularly nontrivial because the elementary bosonic excitations that carry charge and spin propagate with different velocities. We extend the functional bosonization approach to treat the fermionic and bosonic degrees of freedom in a disordered spinful LL on an equal footing. We analyze the effect of spin-charge separation at finite temperature both o…
Design and Optimization of Spin Dynamics in Ge Quantum Dots: g-Factor Modulation, Geometry-Induced Dephasing Sweet Spots, and Phonon-Induced Relaxation
Bosonization technique for one-dimensional fermions out of equilibrium is developed in the framework of the Keldysh action formalism. We first demonstrate how this approach is implemented for free fermions and for the problem of non-equilibrium Fermi edge singularity. We then employ the technique to study an interacting quantum wire attached to two electrodes with arbitrary energy distributions. The non-equilibrium electron Green functions, which can be measured via tunneling spectroscopy technique and carry the information about energy distribution, zero-bias anomaly, and dephasing, are expre…
Using a Luttinger Ward scheme for interacting gauge particles, we present a conserving many body treatment of a family of fully screened infinite U Anderson models that has a smooth cross-over into the Fermi liquid state, with a finite scattering phase shift at zero temperature and a Wilson ratio greater than one. We illustrate our method, computing the temperature dependence of the thermodynamics, resistivity and electron dephasing rate and discuss its future application to non-equilibrium quantum dots and quantum critical mixed valent systems.
We study a system of one-dimensional electrons in the regime of strong repulsive interactions, where the spin exchange coupling J is small compared with the Fermi energy, and the conventional Tomonaga-Luttinger theory does not apply. We show that the tunneling density of states has a form of an asymmetric peak centered near the Fermi level. In the spin-incoherent regime, where the temperature is large compared to J, the density of states falls off as a power law of energy εmeasured from the Fermi level, with the prefactor at positive energies being twice as large as that at the negative ones. …
We report on the study of cleaved-edge-overgrown line junctions with a serendipitously created narrow opening in an otherwise thin, precise line barrier. Two sets of zero-bias anomalies are observed with an enhanced conductance for filling factors $ν> 1$ and a strongly suppressed conductance for $ν< 1$. A transition between the two behaviors is found near $ν\approx 1$. The zero-bias anomaly (ZBA) line shapes find explanation in Luttinger liquid models of tunneling between quantum Hall edge states. The ZBA for $ν< 1$ occurs from strong backscattering induced by suppression of quasiparticle tunn…
Non-equilibrium bosonization technique facilitates the solution of a number of important many-body problems out of equilibrium, including the Fermi-edge singularity, the tunneling spectroscopy and full counting statistics of interacting fermions forming a Luttinger liquid. We generalize the method to non-equilibrium hard-core bosons (Tonks-Girardeau gas) and establish interrelations between all these problems. The results can be expressed in terms of Fredholm determinants of Toeplitz type. We analyze the long time asymptotics of such determinants, using Szegő and Fisher-Hartwig theorems. Our a…
