We analyze the electronic transport through a quantum dot that contains a magnetic impurity. The coherent transport of electrons is governed by the quantum confinement inside the dot, but is also influenced by the exchange interaction with the impurity. The interplay between the two gives raise to the singlet-triplet splitting of the energy levels available for the tunneling electron. In this paper, we focus on the charge fluctuations and, more precisely, the height of the conductance peaks. We show that the conductance peaks corresponding to the triplet levels are three times higher than those corresponding to singlet levels, if electronic correlations are neglected (for non-interacting dots, when an exact solution can be obtained). Next, we consider the Coulomb repulsion and the many-body correlations. In this case, the singlet/triplet peak height ratio has a complex behavior. Usually the highest peak corresponds to the state that is lowest in energy (ground state), regardless if it is singlet or triplet. In the end, we get an insight on the Kondo regime for such a system, and show the formation of three Kondo peaks. We use the equation of motion method with appropriate decoupling.
Assisted hopping effects in magnetic impurities and quantum dots are analyzed. The magnitude of the assisted hopping term in a quantum dot in the limit of large level spacing is comparable to other corrections induced by the electron-electron interactions. Assisted hopping leads to differences between conductance peaks associated to the same level, and, when the effect is sufficiently strong, to local pairing correlations.
Charged impurities in semiconductor quantum dots comprise one of the main obstacles to achieving scalable fabrication and manipulation of singlet-triplet spin qubits. We theoretically show that using dots that contain several electrons each can help to overcome this problem through the screening of the rough and noisy impurity potential by the excess electrons. We demonstrate how the desired screening properties turn on as the number of electrons is increased, and we characterize the properties of a double quantum dot singlet-triplet qubit for small odd numbers of electrons per dot. We show th…
We present a theory for the electronic and magneto-optical properties of spherical quantum dots consisting of an inner core surrounded by an outer shell. This core-shell quantum dot is doped by magnetic Mn impurities all of which are implanted at a preselected radius on a spherical surface within the dot. The spherical symmetry of the dot is broken by the application of an external magnetic field. The electronic states in the presence of a magnetic field are treated in an effective mass model which includes the s-d and p-d exchange interaction with localized Mn d electrons. The strain in the q…
We used resonant laser spectroscopy of multiple confocal InGaAs quantum dots to spatially locate charge fluctuators in the surrounding semiconductor matrix. By mapping out the resonance condition between a narrow-band laser and the neutral exciton transitions of individual dots in a field effect device, we identified spectral discontinuities as arising from charging and discharging events that take place within the volume adjacent to the quantum dots. Our analysis suggests that residual carbon dopants are a major source of charge-fluctuating traps in quantum dot heterostructures.
We present the magnetic phase diagram of artificial H$_2$ molecule in lateral quantum dots doped with magnetic impurities as a function of external magnetic field and plunger gate voltage. The onset of Mn-Mn antiferromagnetic-ferromagnetic transition follows the electron spin singlet-triplet transition. We deploy a configuration-interaction method to exactly diagonalize the electron-Mn Hamiltonian and map it to an effective Mn-Mn Heisenberg Hamiltonian. We find that Mn-Mn exchange coupling can be described by RKKY-interaction/magnetic-polaron in weak/strong electron-Mn coupling at low/high mag…
In a recent paper (Phys. Rev. B {\bf 78}, 075316 (2008)), Sajeev and Moiseyev demonstrated that the bound-to-resonant transitions and lifetimes of autoionizing states in spherical quantum dots can be controlled by varying the confinment strength. In the present paper, we report that such control can in some cases be compromised by the presence of Coulomb impurities. It is demonstrated that a screened Coulomb impurity placed in the vicinity of the dot center can lead to bound-to-resonant transitions and to avoided crossings-like behavior when the screening of the impurity charge is varied. It i…
GaN and the heterostructures are attractive in condensed matter science and applications for electronic devices. We measure the electron transport in GaN/AlGaN field-effect transistors (FETs) at cryogenic temperature. We observe formation of quantum dots in the conduction channel near the depletion of the 2-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). Multiple quantum dots are formed in the disordered potential induced by impurities in the FET conduction channel. We also measure the gate insulator dependence of the transport properties. These results can be utilized for the development of quantum dot devi…
The absorption of electromagnetic radiation of an anisotropic quantum dot is theoretically investigated taking into account the processes associated with simultaneous scattering from ionized impurities. It is shown that the scattering of electrons by impurities leads to the resonance absorption even if we have only one impurity in the quantum dot. Explicit formula is derived for the absorption coefficient. The positions of the resonances peaks are found. The effects of external magnetic field on the resonance absorption are studied.
Studies of the effects of the Hund's rule coupling J_H in multiple orbit impurities or quantum dots using different models have led to quite different predictions for the Kondo temperature T_K as a function of J_H. We show that the differences depend on whether or not the models conserve orbital angular momentum about the impurity site. Using numerical renormalization group (NRG) calculations, we deduce the renormalized parameters for the Fermi liquid regime, and show that, despite the differences between the models, the low energy fixed point in the strong correlation regime is universal with…
Doping a semiconductor quantum dot with just a single impurity atom can completely transform its physical properties. Here, we report and analyze the magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectra of colloidal CdSe quantum dot samples containing on average fewer than one Mn2+ per quantum dot. Even at this sub-single-dopant level, the low-temperature low-field data are dominated by impurity-induced Zeeman splittings caused by dopant-carrier sp-d exchange. Unlike in more heavily doped quantum dots, however, the MCD intensity at the first CdSe exciton shows a field-induced sign flip as the field stren…
A spherical quantum dot (QD) heterosystem CdS/SiO$_2$ has been studied. Each QD has a hydrogen-like impurity in its center. Besides that, it has been accounted that a polarization trap for electron exists at the interfaces due to the difference between the QD and matrix dielectric permittivity. It has been defined that for small QD radii there are surface electron states. For different radii, partial contributions of the surface states into the electron energy caused by the electron-ion and electron-polarization charges interaction have been defined. The linear light absorption coefficient of …
In the present theoretical work we have considered impurities, either boron or phosphorous, located at different substitutional sites in silicon quantum dots (Si-QDs) with diameters around 1.5\,nm, embedded in a SiO2 matrix. Formation energy calculations reveal that the most energetically-favored doping sites are inside the QD and at the Si/SiO2 interface for P and B impurities, respectively. Furthermore, electron and hole transport calculations show in all the cases a strong reduction of the minimum voltage threshold, and a corresponding increase of the total current in the low-voltage regime…
We study the tuning mechanisms of the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) exchange interaction between two lateral quantum dots in the Kondo regime. At zero magnetic field we observe the expected splitting of the Kondo resonance and measure the RKKY interaction strength J as a function of the asymmetry between the two Kondo temperatures. At finite magnetic fields a chiral coupling between the quantum dots is observed in the Kondo chessboard and we probe the presence of the exchange interaction by analyzing the Kondo temperature with magnetic field.
We measure transport through gold grain quantum dots fabricated using electromigration, with magnetic impurities in the leads. A Kondo interaction is observed between dot and leads, but the presence of magnetic impurities results in a gate-dependent zero-bias conductance peak that is split due to an RKKY interaction between the spin of the dot and the static spins of the impurities. A magnetic field restores the single Kondo peak in the case of an antiferromagnetic RKKY interaction. This system provides a new platform to study Kondo and RKKY interactions in metals at the level of a single spin…
We study two quantum dots in the limit of strong dot-lead coupling and weak dot-dot tunneling. The model maps on Ising-coupled Kondo impurities. We argue that a new quantum critical fixed point exists at an intermediate value of the mutual capacitance, supporting non-Fermi liquid behaviour. We construct the total conductance across the double dot structure. It exhibits a strongly peaked behaviour as a function of the mutual capacitance, gate voltage, and temperature.
This paper discusses the influence of the channel impurity distribution on the transport and the drive current in short-gate MOSFET. In this purpose, a careful description of electron-ion interaction suitable for the case of discrete impurities has been implemented in a 3D particle Monte Carlo simulator. This transport model is applied to the investigation of 50 nm MOSFET operation. The results show that a small change in the number of doping impurities or in the position of a single discrete impurity in the inversion layer may significantly influence the drain current. This effect is not only…
We investigate the effects of charged impurity distributions and carrier-carrier interactions on electronic transport in graphene on SiO$_2$ by employing a self-consistent coupled simulation of carrier transport and electrodynamics. We show that impurity clusters of characteristic width 40--50 nm generate electron--hole puddles of experimentally observed sizes. In the conductivity versus carrier density dependence, the residual conductivity and the linear-region slope are determined by the impurity distribution, and the measured slope can be used to estimate the impurity density in experiment.…
We investigate the effect due to background impurities embedded in the region of two-dimensional electron gases to the magnetotransport. These impurities are achieved by homogeneously incorporating Si atoms in single quantum wells of high quality GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures. Several materials were grown this way with different densities of Si atoms. At low temperature the mobility decreases monotonically with increasing impurity density. In materials with incorporated impurities, effects are observed with increasing temperatures. On the one hand, a minimum in mobility appears, marking a trans…
Transport and gain properties of a resonant-phonon terahertz quantum cascade laser are calculated using nonequilibrium Green's functions. Impurity scattering is shown to be responsible for contrasting nonlinear effects in the transport and the gain properties. For typical doping concentrations, the current density is found to be weakly sensitive to the impurity scattering strength. In contrast, the calculated gain is found to be very sensitive to the impurity scattering strength. This difference is attributed to the strong momentum dependence of the long-range coupling to charged impurities. S…
The ground-state energy and fine-structure splitting of ionized shallow donor impurity-exciton complex in quantum dots are investigated. It is found that fine-structure splitting could be largely reduced by the off-center ionized impurities since the anisotropic shape of exciton envelope function is significantly changed. Anomalous Stark shifts of the ground-state energy and efficient tuning of the fine-structure splitting by the external electric field due to the local electric field produced by the ionized impurities are discussed. The scheme may be useful for the design of the quantum dots-…
Electron transport in a two-terminal Aharonov-Bohm ring with a few short-range scatterers is investigated. An analytical expression for the conductance as a function of the electron Fermi energy and magnetic flux is obtained using the zero-range potential theory. The dependence of the conductance on positions of scatterers is studied. We have found that the conductance exhibits asymmetric Fano resonances at certain energies. The dependence of the Fano resonances on magnetic field and positions of impurities is investigated. It is found that collapse of the Fano resonances occurs and discrete e…
We theoretically study the transport properties of both monolayer and bilayer graphene in the presence of electron-hole puddles induced by charged impurities which are invariably present in the graphene environment. We calculate the graphene conductivity by taking into account the non-mean-field two-component nature of transport in the highly inhomogeneous density and potential landscape, where activated transport across the potential fluctuations in the puddle regimes coexists with regular metallic diffusive transport. The existence of puddles allows the local activation at low carrier densit…
We present realistic simulations of quantum confinement effects in ballistic graphene quantum dots with linear dimensions of 10 to 40 nm. We determine wavefunctions and energy level statistics in the presence of disorder resulting from edge roughness, charge impurities, or short-ranged scatterers. Marked deviations from a simple Dirac billiard for massless fermions are found. We find a remarkably stable dependence of the nearest-neighbor level spacing on edge roughness suggesting that the roughness of fabricated devices can be potentially characterized by the distribution of measured Coulomb b…
We study the transport properties of two dimensional electron systems with strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC) doped with interacting magnetic impurities. Interactions between magnetic impurities cause the formation of magnetic clusters with temperature dependent mean sizes (CMSs) distributed randomly on the surface of the system. Treating magnetic clusters as scattering centers, by employing a generalized relaxation time approximation we obtain the non-equilibrium distribution functions of Rashba electrons in both regimes of above and below the band-crossing point (BCP) and present the ex…
We investigate the ballistic electron transport in a monolayer graphene with configurational averaged impurities, located between two clean graphene leads. It is shown that the electron transmission are strongly dependent on the concentration of impurities and the incident energy. In turn, the conductance computed using the Landauer formalism shows a similar behavior to those found in experimental works as a function of the applied voltage for different concentrations of impurities in the limit of low temperatures. In the limit of zero bias voltage, the conductance shows a minimum value which …
In the present review we make a comprehensive analysis of our understanding on electron transport in mesoscopic single-channel rings and multi-channel cylinders within a tight-binding framework. A spectacular mesoscopic phenomenon where a non-decaying current circulates in a small conducting loop is observed upon the application of an Aharonov-Bohm flux $ϕ$. To understand its behavior one has to focus attention on the interplay of quantum phase coherence, electron-electron correlation and disorder. This is a highly challenging problem and here we address it for some simple loop geometries with…
We analyze the single particle states at the edges of disordered graphene quantum dots. We show that generic graphene quantum dots support a number of edge states proportional to circumference of the dot over the lattice constant. Our analytical theory agrees well with numerical simulations. Perturbations breaking electron-hole symmetry like next-nearest neighbor hopping or edge impurities shift the edge states away from zero energy but do not change their total amount. We discuss the possibility of detecting the edge states in an antidot array and provide an upper bound on the magnetic moment…
We study electron transport through double quantum dots in series. The tunnel coupling of the discrete dot levels to external leads causes a shift of their energy. This energy renormalization affects the transport characteristics even in the limit of weak dot-lead coupling, when sequential transport dominates. We propose an experimental setup which reveals the renormalization effects in either the current-voltage characteristics or in the stability diagram.
We study the transport through evanescent waves in graphene quantum dots of different geometries. The transmission is suppressed when the leads are attached to edges of the same majority sublattice. Otherwise, the transmission depends exponentially on the distance between leads in rectangular dots, and as a power law in circular dots. The transmission through junctions where the transmitted and reflected currents belong to the opposite valley as the incoming one depends on details of the lattice structure at distances comparable to the atomic spacing.
We investigate transport through a single-level quantum dot coupled to noncollinearly magnetized ferromagnets in the presence of localized spins in either the tunnel barrier or on the quantum dot. For a spin embedded in the tunnel barrier, we find an interplay between current-induced switching of the spin, spin-dependent tunneling through the barrier and spin accumulation on the dot resulting in characteristic signals in the current. We, furthermore, find huge Fano factors due to random telegraph noise. For noncollinear geometries, an exchange field that depends on the impurity spin state lead…
We theoretically study the atomic structure and energetics of silicon and silicon-nitrogen impurities in graphene. Using density-functional theory, we get insight into the atomic structures of the impurities, evaluate their formation energies and assess their abundance in realistic samples. We find that nitrogen, as well as oxygen and hydrogen, are trapped at silicon impurities, considerably altering the electronic properties of the system. Furthermore, we show that nitrogen doping can induce local magnetic moments resulting in spin-dependent transport properties, even though neither silicon n…
We derive a complete expression for the interaction correction to the $I-V$ curve of two connected in series metallic quantum dots. For strongly asymmetric dots in a wide range of parameters this interaction correction depends logarithmically on voltage and temperature.
We study both monolayer and bilayer graphene transport properties taking into account the presence of correlations in the spatial distribution of charged impurities. In particular we find that the experimentally observed sublinear scaling of the graphene conductivity can be naturally explained as arising from impurity correlation effects in the Coulomb disorder, with no need to assume the presence of short-range scattering centers in addition to charged impurities. We find that also in bilayer graphene correlations among impurities induce a crossover of the scaling of the conductivity at highe…
Strong spin-orbit interaction characteristic for p-type GaAs systems, makes such systems promising for the realization of spintronic devices. Here we report on transport measurements in nanostructures fabricated on p-type, C-doped GaAs heterostructures by scanning probe oxidation lithography. We observe conductance quantization in a quantum point contact, as well as pronounced Coulomb resonances in two quantum dots with different geometries. Charging energies for both dots, extracted from Coulomb diamond measurements are in agreement with the lithographic dimensions of the dots. The absence of…
We present Coulomb blockade measurements in a graphene double dot system. The coupling of the dots to the leads and between the dots can be tuned by graphene in-plane gates. The coupling is a non-monotonic function of the gate voltage. Using a purely capacitive model, we extract all relevant energy scales of the double dot system.
The symmetry properties of transport beyond the linear regime in chaotic quantum dots are investigated experimentally. A component of differential conductance that is antisymmetric in both applied source-drain bias V and magnetic field B, absent in linear transport, is found to exhibit mesoscopic fluctuations around a zero average. Typical values of this component allow a measurement of the electron interaction strength.
The electron transport through the parabolic quantum wire placed in longitudinal magnetic field in the presence of the system of short-range impurities inside the wire is investigated. Using approach based on the zero-range potential theory we obtained an exact formula for the transmission coefficient of the electron through the wire that allows to calculate such the transport characteristics as the conductance and differential thermopower. The dependencies of conductance and thermopower on the chemical potential and magnetic field are investigated. The effect of elastic scattering due to shor…
Graphene quantum dots are considered as promising alternatives to quantum dots in III-V semiconductors, e.g., for the use as spin qubits due to their consistency made of light atoms including spin-free nuclei which both imply relatively long spin decoherene times. However, this potential has not been realized in experiments so far, most likely, due to a missing control of the edge configurations of the quantum dots. Thus, a more fundamental investigation of Graphene quantum dots appears to be necessary including a full control of the wave function properties most favorably during transport spe…
Spin-dependent transport through two coupled single-level quantum dots weakly connected to ferromagnetic leads with collinear magnetizations is considered theoretically. Transport characteristics, including the current, linear and nonlinear conductance, and tunnel magnetoresistance are calculated using the real-time diagrammatic technique in the parallel, serial, and intermediate geometries. The effects due to virtual tunneling processes between the two dots via the leads, associated with off-diagonal coupling matrix elements, are also considered. Negative differential conductance and negative…
We study transport through double quantum dots coupled to normal and superconducting leads, where the Andreev reflection plays a key role in determining characteristic transport properties. We shall discuss two typical cases, i.e. double dots with serial or parallel geometry. For the parallel geometry, the interference of electrons via multiple paths is induced, so that the transmission probability has Fano-type dip structures which are symmetric with respect to the Fermi energy. We also investigate the Aharonov-Bohm(AB) effect for the parallel geometry. In some particular situations, we find …
We study the spectrum and the transport properties of two identical, vertically coupled quantum dots in a perpendicular magnetic field. We find correlation-induced energy crossings in a magnetic field sweep between states differing only in the vertical degree of freedom. Considering the influence of a slight asymmetry between the dots caused by the applied source-drain voltage in vertical transport experiments these crossings convert to anticrossings accompanied by the build-up of charge polarization which is tunable by the perpendicular magnetic field. The polarization strongly affects the ve…
We theoretically investigate electron transport through an Aharonov-Bohm interferometer containing laterally coupled double quantum dots. We introduce the indirect coupling parameter $α$, which characterizes the strength of the coupling via the reservoirs between two quantum dots. $|α|=1$ indicates the strongest coupling, where only a single mode contributes to the transport in the system. Two conduction modes exist in a system where $|α|\neq 1$. The interference effects such as the Fano resonance and the Aharonov-Bohm oscillation are suppressed as the absolute value of the parameter $α$ decre…
We study the sub-gap spectrum and the transport properties of a double quantum dot coupled to metallic and superconducting leads. The coupling of both quantum dots to the superconducting lead induces a non-local pairing in both quantum dots by the Andreev reflection processes. Additionally, we obtain two channels of Cooper pair tunneling into a superconducting lead. In such a system, the direct tunneling process (by one of two dots) or the crossed tunneling process (by both quantum dots at the same time) is possible. We consider the dependence of the Andreev transmittance on an inter-dot tunne…
We investigate the conductance of a quantum wire with two embedded quantum dots using a T-matrix approach based on the Lippmann-Schwinger formalism. The quantum dots are represented by a quantum well with Gaussian shape and the wire is two-dimensional with parabolic confinement in the transverse direction. In a broad wire the transport can assume a strong nonadiabatic character and the conductance manifests effects caused by intertwined inter- and intra-dot processes that are identified by analysis of the ``nearfield'' probability distribution of the transported electrons.
We present a transport setup of coupled quantum dots that enables the creation of spatially separated spin-entangled two-electron dark states. We prove the existence of an entangled transport dark state by investigating the system Hamiltonian without coupling to the electronic reservoirs. In the transport regime the entangled dark state which corresponds to a singlet has a strongly enhanced Fano factor compared to the dark state which corresponds to a mixture of the triplet states. Furthermore we calculate the concurrence of the occupying electrons to show the degree of entanglement in the tra…
Motivated by recent experiments on electric transport through single molecules and quantum dots, we investigate a model for transport that allows for significant coupling between the electrons and a boson mode isolated on the molecule or dot. We focus our attention on the temperature dependent properties of the transport. In the Holstein picture for polaronic transport in molecular crystals the temperature dependence of the conductivity exhibits a crossover from coherent (band) to incoherent (hopping) transport. Here, the temperature dependence of the differential conductance on resonance does…
We report on theoretical studies of transport through graphene quantum dots weakly coupled to external ferromagnetic leads. The calculations are performed by exact diagonalization of a tight-binding Hamiltonian with finite Coulomb correlations for graphene sheet and by using the real-time diagrammatic technique in the sequential and cotunneling regimes. The emphasis is put on the role of graphene flake shape and spontaneous edge magnetization in transport characteristics, such as the differential conductance, tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) and the shot noise. It is shown that for certain sh…
We examine the full counting statistics of electron transport through double quantum dots coupled in series, with particular attention being paid to the unique features originating from level renormalization. It is clearly illustrated that the energy renormalization gives rise to a dynamic charge blockade mechanism, which eventually results in super-Poissonian noise. Coupling of the double dots to an external heat bath leads to dephasing and relaxation mechanisms, which are demonstrated to suppress the noise in a unique way.
We consider theoretically the transport through the double quantum dot structure of the recent experiment of C. Payette {\it et al.} [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 102}, 026808 (2009)] and calculate stationary current and shotnoise. Three-level mixing gives rise to a pronounced current suppression effect, the character of which charges markedly with bias direction. We discuss these results in connexion with the dark states of coherent population trapping in quantum dots.
We present a detailed theoretical investigation of the effect of Coulomb interactions on electron transport through quantum dots and double barrier structures connected to a voltage source via an arbitrary linear impedance. Combining real time path integral techniques with the scattering matrix approach we derive the effective action and evaluate the current-voltage characteristics of quantum dots at sufficiently large conductances. Our analysis reveals a reach variety of different regimes which we specify in details for the case of chaotic quantum dots. At sufficiently low energies the intera…
Electronic transport through a triple quantum dot system, with only a single dot coupled directly to external leads, is considered theoretically. The model includes Coulomb correlations in the central dot, while such correlations in the two side-coupled dots are omitted. The infinite-U mean-field slave-boson approach is used to obtain basic transport characteristics in the Kondo regime. When tuning position of the side-coupled dots' levels, transition from subradiant to superradiant like mode (and vice versa) has been found in the spectral function, in analogy to the Dicke effect in atomic phy…
The effects of interplay between spin-orbit coupling and Zeeman splitting on weak localisation and universal conductance fluctuations in lateral semiconductor quantum dots are analysed: All possible symmetry classes of corresponding random matrix theories are listed and crossovers between them achievable by sweeping magnetic field and changing the dot parameters are described. We also suggest experiments to measure the spin-orbit coupling constants.
The role of non-equilibrium effects in the conductance through quantum dots is investigated. Associated with single-electron tunneling are shake-up processes and the formation of excitonic-like resonances. They change qualitatively the low temperature properties of the system. We analyze by quantum Monte Carlo methods the renormalization of the effective capacitance and the gate-voltage dependent conductance. Experimental relevance is discussed.
We systematically investigate electron transport through double quantum dots with particular emphasis on interference induced via multiple paths of electron propagation. By means of the slave-boson mean-field approximation, we calculate the conductance, the local density of states, the transmission probability in the Kondo regime at zero temperature. It is clarified how the Kondo-assisted transport changes its properties when the system is continuously changed among the serial, parallel and T-shaped double dots. The obtained results for the conductance are explained in terms of the Kondo reson…
We present a detailed analysis of the electronic and optical properties of two-electron quantum dots with a two-dimensional Gaussian confinement potential. We study the effects of Coulomb impurities and the possibility of manipulate the entanglement of the electrons by controlling the confinement potential parameters. The degree of entanglement becomes highly modulated by both the location and charge screening of the impurity atom, resulting two regimes: one of low entanglement and other of high entanglement, with both of them mainly determined by the magnitude of the charge. It is shown that …
