We present generalized scattering theory for multi-terminal spin transport in systems with broken SU(2) symmetry either due to spin-orbit interaction,magnetic impurities or magnetic leads. We derive equation for spin current consistent with charge conservation. It is shown that resulting spin current equations can not be expressed as difference of potential pointing to {\it non applicability of linear response for spin currents} and as a consequence equilibrium spin currents(ESC) in the leads are non zero. We illustrate the theory by calculating ESC in two terminal normal system in presence of Rashba spin orbit coupling and show that it leads to spin rectification consistent with the non linear nature of spin transport.
Generation and measurement of non-equilibrium spin current in two probe configuration is discussed. It is argued and shown that spin current can be generated in two terminal non-magnetic system. Further it is shown that these spin currents can be measured via conductance in two probe configuration when the detector probe is ferromagnetic.
We show that in the multi-terminal ballistic devices with intrinsic spin-orbit interaction connected to normal metal contacts there are no equilibrium spin currents present at any given electron energy. Obviously, this statement holds also after the integration over all occupied states. Based on the proof of this fact, a number of scenarios involving nonequilibrium spin currents is identified and further analyzed. In particular, it is shown that an arbitrary two-terminal device cannot polarize transient current. The same is true for the output terminal of an N-terminal device when all N-1 inpu…
Multi-terminal transport setups allow to realize more complex measurements and functionalities (e.g., transistors) of nanoscale systems than the simple two-terminal arrangement. Here the steady-state density functional formalism (i-DFT) for the description of transport through nanoscale junctions with an arbitrary number of leads is developed. In a three-terminal setup and in the ideal STM limit where one of the electrodes (the `STM tip') is effectively decoupled from the junction, the formalism allows to extract its non-equilibrium spectral function (at arbitrary temperature) while a bias is …
The quest for good thermoelectric materials and/or high-efficiency thermoelectric devices is of primary importance from theoretical and practical points of view. Low-dimensional structures with quantum dots or molecules are promising candidates to achieve the goal. Interactions between electrons, far-from-equilibrium conditions and strongly non-linear transport are important factors affecting the usefulness of the devices. This paper analyses the thermoelectric power of a two-terminal quantum dot under large thermal $ΔT$ and voltage $V$ biases as well as the performance of the three-terminal s…
We study the transport properties of a four-terminal corner junction made by etching a two- dimensional topological insulator to form a quantum point contact (QPC). The QPC geometry enables inter-boundary tunneling processes allowing for the coupling among states with different helicity, while the tight confinement in the QPC region activates charging effects leading to the Coulomb blockade physics. Peculiar signatures of these effects are theoretically investigated using a scattering field theory modified to take into account the electron-electron interaction within a self- consistent mean-fi…
Motivated by recent experiments, we consider a single-electron transistor in the Kondo regime which is coupled to three leads in the presence of large bias voltages. Such a steady-state non-equilibrium system is to a large extent governed by a decoherence rate induced by the current through the dot. As the two-terminal conductance turns out to be rather insensitive to the decoherence rate, we study the conductance in a three-terminal device using perturbative renormalization group and calculate the characteristic splitting of the Kondo resonance. The interplay between potential biases and anis…
We consider a three-terminal system with a chiral edge channel connecting the source and drain terminals. Charge can tunnel between the chiral edge and a third terminal. The third terminal is maintained at a different temperature and voltage than the source and drain. We prove a general relation for the current noises detected in the drain and third terminal. It has the same structure as an equilibrium fluctuation-dissipation relation with the nonlinear response in place of the linear conductance. The result applies to a general chiral system and can be useful for detecting "upstream" modes on…
In this paper we present a method to numerically study transverse Hall conductances using a two-terminal setup. Using nonlinear transport concepts we find that the Hall voltage dependence on the model parameters can be investigated from the difference between the injectivities from each terminal. The method is suitable to work with non-equilibrium Green's functions as well as for scattering matrix approaches. We illustrate the proposed idea by studying the quantum spin Hall effect in graphene with disordered spin-orbit scattering centers induced by adatoms. We use two distinct models, a finite…
The electron transport properties of a four-terminal molecular device are computed within the framework of density functional theory and non-equilibrium Keldysh theory. The additional two terminals lead to new properties, including a pronounced negative differential resistance not present in a two-terminal setup, and a pseudo-gating effect. In general, quantum interference between the four terminals and the central molecule leads to a complex non-linear behavior, dependent on the alignment of individual molecular states under bias and their coupling to the leads.
We study theoretically some symmetry properties of spin currents and spin polarizations in multi-terminal mesoscopic spin-orbit coupled systems. Based on a scattering wave function approach, we show rigorously that in the equilibrium state no finite spin polarizations can exist in a multi-terminal mesoscopic spin-orbit coupled system (both in the leads and in the spin-orbit coupled region) and also no finite equilibrium terminal spin currents can exist. By use of a typical two-terminal mesoscopic spin-orbit coupled system as the example, we show explicitly that the nonequilibrium terminal spin…
We study non-equilibrium noise in the tunnelling current between the edges of a quantum Hall liquid in the Pfaffian state, which is a strong candidate for the plateau at $ν=5/2$. To first non-vanishing order in perturbation theory (in the tunneling amplitude) we find that one can extract the value of the fractional charge of the tunnelling quasiparticles. We note however that no direct information about non-abelian statistics can be retrieved at this level. If we go to higher-order in the perturbative calculation of the non-equilibrium shot noise, we find effects due to non-Abelian statistics.…
In linear transport, the fluctuation-dissipation theorem relates equilibrium current correlations to the linear conductance coefficient. Theory and experiment have shown that in small electrical conductors the non-linear I-V-characteristic of two-terminal conductor exhibits terms which are asymmetric in magnetic field and thus micro-reversibility is manifestly broken. We discuss a non-equilibrium fluctuation dissipation theorem which is not based on micro-reversibility. It connects the antisymmetric nonlinear conductance with the third cumulant of equilibrium current fluctuations and a noise t…
In this paper,we present a detailed formulation to solve the scattering wave function for a multi-terminal mesoscopic system with spin-orbit coupling. In addition to terminal currents, all local quantities can be calculated explicitly by taking proper ensemble average in the Landauer-Buttiker's spirit using the scattering wave functions. Based on this formulation, we derive some rigorous results for equilibrium state. Furthermore, some new symmetry relations are found for the typical two terminal structure in which a semiconductor bar with Rashba or/and Dresselhaus SO coupling is sandwiched sy…
We develop a general out-of-equilibrium framework for a typical three-terminal setup of common use: an injector, which can be interacting, coupled by both extended tunneling and Coulomb interactions to an inhomogeneous wire with any range of interactions and scattering processes. Some of the crucial results we obtain are of relevance to other muti-terminal geometries. We show that the voltage of the injector does not cut the flow of relevant scattering processes in the wire. Either a grounded or a semi-infinite wire at too low temperature is driven into the strong coupling regime. We show that…
Charge and heat transport in nano-structures is dominated by non-equilibrium effects which strongly influence their behaviour. These effects are studied in a setup consisting of three external leads, one of which is considered as a heat reservoir and is tunnel-coupled to two cold electrodes via two independently controlled quantum dots. The energy flow from the hot electrode together with energy filtering provided by quantum dots leads to a voltage bias between the cold electrodes. The heat and charge currents in the device effectively flow in mutually perpendicular directions, allowing for th…
We report an observation of a new, non dissipative and non local supercurrent, carried by quartets; each consisting of four entangled electrons. The supercurrent is a result of a novel Andreev bound state (ABS), formed among three superconducting terminals. While in a two-terminal Josephson junction the usual ABS, and thus the DC Josephson current, exist only in equilibrium, in the present realization the ABS exists also in the strongly nonlinear regime (biased terminals). The presence of supercurrent carried by quartets was established by performing non-local conductance and cross-correlation…
With recent developments in spintronics, it is now possible to envision spin-driven devices with magnets and interconnects that require a new class of transport models using generalized Fermi functions and currents, each with four components: one for charge and three for spin. The corresponding impedance elements are not pure numbers but $4\times4$ matrices. Starting from the Non-Equilibrium Green's Function (NEGF) formalism in the elastic, phase-coherent transport regime, we develop spin generalized Landauer-Büttiker formulas involving such $4\times 4$ conductances, for multi-terminal devices…
The equilibrium current-phase structure of a tri-terminal superconducting Josephson junction (bijunction) is analyzed as a function of the two relevant phases. The bijunction is made of two noninteracting quantum dots, each one carrying a single level. Nonlocal processes coupling the three terminals are described in terms of quartet tunneling and pair cotunneling. These couplings are due to nonlocal Andreev and cotunneling processes through the central superconductor $S_0$, as well as direct interdot coupling. In some cases, two degenerate midgap Andreev states appear, symmetric with respect t…
We study the quantum interference (QI) effects in three-terminal Andreev interferometers based on polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH's) under non-equilibrium conditions. The Andreev interferometer consists of a PAH coupled to two superconducting and one normal conducting terminals. We calculate the current measured in the normal lead as well as the current between the superconducting terminals under non-equilibrium conditions. We show that both the QI arising in the PAH cores and the bias voltage applied to a normal contact have a fundamental effect on the charge distribution associated with the A…
We have measured the Kondo effect in a quantum ring connected to three terminals. In this configuration non-linear transport measurements allow to check which lead contributes to the Kondo density of states (DOS) and which does not. When the ring is connected to two strongly and one weakly coupled leads, the measurement of the differential conductance through the weakly coupled lead allows to probe directly the Kondo DOS. In addition, by applying a bias between the two strongly coupled leads, we show the splitting of the out-of-equilibrium DOS.
We investigate the spin transport and precession in graphene by using the Hanle effect in nonlocal and threeterminal measurement geometries. Identical spin lifetimes, spin diffusion lengths and spin polarizations are observed in graphene devices for both techniques over a wide range of temperatures. The magnitude of the spin signals is well explained by spin transport models. These observations rules out any signal enhancements or additional scattering mechanisms at the interfaces for both geometries. This validates the applicability of both the measurement methods for graphene based spintroni…
Using non-equilibrium Green's functions (NEGF), we calculate the current through an interacting region connected to non-interacting leads. The problem is reformulated in such a way that a Landauer-like term appears in the current as well as extra terms corresponding to non-equilibrium many-body effects. The interaction in the central region renormalizes not only the Green's functions but also the coupling at the contacts between the central region and the leads, allowing the total current to be further expressed as a generalized Landauer-like current formula. The general expression for the dyn…
Hybrid Superconductor/Ferromagnet structures have been investigated recently to address the interplay between ferromagnetism and superconductivity. They also open up new routes for the investigation of out of equilibrium superconductivity. Here, we show how it is possible for out of equilibrium excitations produced in a superconducting thin film (S) to be localized in a ferromagnetic trap (F). Specifically, a ferromagnetic nano-volume in good contact with S represents a potential well for the quasiparticles (QPs) at the gap edge. As the superconducting proximity effect is highly suppressed in …
Memristive systems were proposed in 1976 by Leon Chua and Sung Mo Kang as a model for 2-terminal passive nonlinear dynamical systems which exhibit memory effects. Such systems were originally shown to be relevant to the modeling of action potentials in neurons in regards to the Hodgkin-Huxley model and, more recently, to the modeling of thin film materials such as TiO2-x proposed for non-volatile resistive memory. However, over the past 50 years a variety of 3-terminal non-passive dynamical devices have also been shown to exhibit memory effects similar to that predicted by the memristive syste…
We present a generalize Landauer-Büttiker transport theory for multi-terminal spin transport in presence of spin-orbit interaction. It is pointed out that the presence of spin-orbit interaction results in {\it equilibrium spin currents}, since in presence of spin-orbit interaction spin is not a conserved quantitative. Further we illustrate the theory by applying it to a three terminal Y-shaped conductor. It is shown that when one of the terminal is a potential probe, there exist {\it nonequilibrium pure spin currents} without a n accompanying charge current. It is shown that this pure spin cur…
For classical ballistic transport in a multi-terminal geometry, we derive a universal trade-off relation between total dissipation and the precision, at which particles are extracted from individual reservoirs. Remarkably, this bound becomes significantly weaker in presence of a magnetic field breaking time-reversal symmetry. By working out an explicit model for chiral transport enforced by a strong magnetic field, we show that our bounds are tight. Beyond the classical regime, we find that, in quantum systems far from equilibrium, correlated exchange of particles makes it possible to exponent…
We calculate the electrical currents through a superconductor - insulator - superconductor junction which is also weakly coupled to a normal metal side probe. The voltage $V$ applied to the normal metal terminal controls the occupation of Andreev energy levels $E_n$, and therefore controls the Josephson current flowing through these levels. Whenever the probe voltage crosses an Andreev level, the Josephson current changes abruptly by an amount equal to the current flowing through the Andreev level. The differential conductance along the normal metal terminal permits spectroscopy of the Andreev…
We investigate transport in type-I/type-II Weyl semi\-metal heterostructures that realize effective black- or white-hole event horizons. We provide an exact solution to the scattering problem at normal incidence and low energies, both for a sharp and a slowly-varying Weyl cone tilt profile. In the latter case, we find two channels with transmission amplitudes analog to those of Hawking radiation. Whereas the Hawking-like signatures of these two channels cancel in equilibrium, we demonstrate that one can favor the contribution of either channel using a non-equilibrium state, either by irradiati…
In a Josephson junction (JJ), Cooper pairs are transported via Andreev bound states (ABSs) between superconductors. The ABSs in the weak link of multi-terminal (MT) JJs can coherently hybridize two Cooper pairs among different superconducting electrodes, resulting in the Cooper quartet (CQ) involving four fermions entanglement. The energy spectrum of these CQ-ABS can be controlled by biasing MT-JJs due to the AC Josephson effect. Here, using gate tunable four-terminal graphene JJs complemented with a flux loop, we construct CQs with a tunable spectrum. The critical quartet supercurrent exhibit…
The edge channels of two-dimensional topological systems are protected from elastic reflection and are noiseless at low temperature. Yet, noise and cross-correlations can be induced when electron waves partly transmit to the opposite edge via tunneling through a constriction. In particular, in a quantum spin Hall (QSH) system tunnelling occurs via both spin-preserving ($p$) and spin-flipping ($f$) processes, each fulfilling time-reversal symmetry. We investigate the current correlations of a four-terminal QSH setup in the presence of a tunneling region, both at equilibrium and out-of-equilibri…
We present results of micromagnetic simulations of thin ferromagnetic nano hemispheroidal shells with sizes ranging from 1 to 50 nm (inside dimensions). Depending on the geometrical and magnetic parameters of the hemispheroidal shell, there exist four different magnetic phases: easy axis, easy plane, onion and vortex. The profile for the vortex magnetization distribution is analyzed and the limitations and applicability of different vortex ansatzes are discussed. In addition, we investigate the total energy density for each of the magnetic distributions as a function of the hemispheroidal shel…
Floquet topological insulators are systems in which the topology emerges out of equilibrium when a time periodic perturbation is applied. In these systems one can define quasi-energy states which replace the quilibrium stationary states. The system exhibits its non-trivial topology by developing edge localized quasi-energy states which lie in a gap of the quasi energy spectrum. These states represent a non-equilibrium analogue of the topologically protected edge-states in equilibrium topological insulators. In equilibrium these edge-states lead to very specific transport properties, in particu…
Four-terminal resistance measurements have been carried out on Zn nanowires formed using electron-beam lithography. When driven resistive by current, these wires re-enter the superconducting state upon application of small magnetic fields. The data are qualitatively different from those of previous experiments on superconducting nanowires, which revealed either negative magnetoresistance near T_{c} or magnetic field enhanced critical currents. We suggest that our observations are associated with the damping of phase slip processes by the enhancement of dissipation by the quasiparticle conducta…
We report for the first time enhancement of the supercurrent by means of injection in a mesoscopic three terminal planar SNSNS device made of Al on GaAs. When a current is injected from one of the superconducting Al electrodes at an injection bias $V=Δ(T)/e$, the DC Josephson current between the other two superconducting electrodes has a maximum, giving evidence for an enhancement due to a non-equilibrium injection into bound Andreev states of the underlying semiconductor. The effect persists to temperatures where the equilibrium supercurrent has vanished.
We investigate the transport properties of a bilayer exciton condensate that is contacted by four superconducting leads. We focus on the equilibrium regime and investigate how the Josephson currents induced in the bilayer by phase biases applied to the superconducting electrodes are affected by the presence of an exciton condensate in the bulk of the system. As long as the distance between the superconducting electrodes is much larger than the exciton coherence length, the Josephson current depends only on the difference between the phase biases in the two layers. This result holds true in bot…
We consider an open system of non-interacting electrons consisting of a small sample connected to several reservoirs and temperature or voltage probes. We study the non-linear system of equations that determines the probe parameters. We show that it has a unique solution, which can be computed with a fast converging iterative algorithm. We illustrate our method with two well-known models: the three-terminal system and the open Aharovov-Bohm interferometer.
In this paper, we study transport properties of non-equilibrium systems under the application of light in many-terminal measurements, using the Floquet picture. We propose and demonstrate that the quantum transport properties can be controlled in materials such as graphene and topological insulators, via the application of light. Remarkably, under the application of off-resonant light, topological transport properties can be induced; these systems exhibits quantum Hall effects in the absence of a magnetic field with a near quantization of the Hall conductance, realizing so-called quantum Hall …
Non-equilibrium transport properties of charge and spin sector of two edges of a quantum spin Hall insulator are investigated theoretically in a four-terminal configuration. A simple duality relation between charge and spin sector is found for two helical Tomonaga Luttinger liquids (hTTLs) connected to non-interacting electron reservoirs. If the hTLLs on opposite edges are coupled locally or non-locally, the mixing between them yields interesting physics where spin information can be easily detected by a charge measurement and vice versa. Particularly, we show how a pure spin density in the ab…
This paper is the documentation for a numerical code for quantum transport called KNIT. The KNIT library implements a generalization of the well known recursive Green function technique for a large class of multi-terminal mesoscopic systems with arbitrary geometries, topology and dimension. The systems are described by tight-biding Hamiltonians (with arbitrary internal degree of freedom like spin, electron/hole grading, orbitals...) and the calculation done within the non equilibrium Green function formalism (equivalent to the Landauer-Buttiker Scattering approach). KNIT can (and has) been app…
We consider DC supercurrents in SNS junctions. Spin-orbit coupling in combination with Zeeman fields can induce an effective vector potential in the normal conductor. As a consequence, an out-of-plane spin-density varying along the transverse direction causes a longitudinal phase difference between the superconducting terminals. The resulting equilibrium phase coherent supercurrent is analogue to the non-equilibrium inverse spin Hall effect in normal conductors. We explicitly compute the effect for the Rashba spin orbit coupling in a disordered two-dimensional electron gas with an inhomogeneou…
We derive the exact n-point current expectation values in the Landauer-Buttiker non-equilibrium steady state of a multi terminal system with star graph geometry and a point-like defect localised in the vertex. The current cumulants are extracted from the connected correlation functions and the cumulant generating function is established. We determine the moments, show that the associated moment problem has a unique solution and reconstruct explicitly the corresponding probability distribution. The basic building blocks of this distribution are the probabilities of particle emission and absorpt…
