We investigate conductance fluctuations as a function of carrier density $n$ and magnetic field in diffusive mesoscopic samples made from monolayer and bilayer graphene. We show that the fluctuations' correlation energy and field, which are functions of the diffusion coefficient, have fundamentally different variations with $n$, illustrating the contrast between massive and massless carriers. The field dependent fluctuations are nearly independent of $n$, but the $n$-dependent fluctuations are not universal and are largest at the charge neutrality point. We also measure the second order conductance fluctuations (mesoscopic rectification). Its field asymmetry, due to electron-electron interaction, decays with conductance, as predicted for diffusive systems.
Nonlinear electrical properties of graphene-based three-terminal nanojunctions are presented. Intrinsic rectification of voltage is observed up to room temperature. The sign and the efficiency of the rectification can be tuned by a gate. Changing the charge carrier type from holes to electrons results in a change of the rectification sign. At a bias < 20mV and at a temperature below 4.2K the sign and the efficiency of the rectification are governed by universal conductance fluctuations.
Current understanding of thermal rectification asserts that the rectification ratio (R), which measures the relative heat flux between two ends of a nanostructure, is determined by its geometric asymmetry. The higher the asymmetry, the higher the R. However, by using nonequilibrium molecular dynamics method we have calculated thermal transport in Si nanocones as an example, the results show that such an understanding may be incorrect and R may not increase monotonically with geometric asymmetry. Rather, R exhibits a sharp reverse when the vertex angle (θ) of the nanocone is approximately 90°. …
We present a theoretical study of radiative heat transport in nonlinear solid-state quantum circuits. We give a detailed account of heat rectification effects, i.e. the asymmetry of heat current with respect to a reversal of the thermal gradient, in a system consisting of two reservoirs at finite temperatures coupled through a nonlinear resonator. We suggest an experimentally feasible superconducting circuit employing the Josephson nonlinearity to realize a controllable low temperature heat rectifier with a maximal asymmetry of the order of 10%. We also discover a parameter regime where the re…
Nanoscale control over electron transport at scales that are comparable to the Fermi wavelength or mean-free path can lead to new families of electronic devices. Here we report electrical rectification in nanowires formed by nanoscale control of the metal-insulator transition at the interface between LaAlO3 and SrTiO3. Controlled in-plane asymmetry in the confinement potential produces electrical rectification in the nanowire, analogous to what occurs naturally for Schottky diodes or by design in structures with engineered structural inversion asymmetry. Nanostructures produced in this manner …
The electrical conductance, thermal conductance, thermal power and figure of merit (ZT) of semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) embedded into an insulator matrix connected with metallic electrodes are theoretically investigated in the Coulomb blockade regime. The multilevel Anderson model is used to simulate the multiple QDs junction system. The charge and heat currents in the sequential tunneling process are calculated by the Keldysh Green function technique. In the linear response regime the ZT values are still very impressive in the small tunneling rates case, although the effect of electron Co…
Fundamental Casimir-Onsager symmetry rules for linear response do not apply to non linear transport. This motivates the investigation of nonlinear dc conductance of mesoscopic GaAs/GaAlAs rings in a 2 wire configuration. The second order current response to a potential bias is of particular interest. It is related to the sensitivity of conductance fluctuations to this bias and contains information on electron interactions not included in the linear response. In contrast with the linear response which is a symmetric function of magnetic field we find that this second order response exhibits a f…
We investigate the nonlinear current-voltage characteristic of mesoscopic conductors and the current generated through rectification of an alternating external bias. To leading order in applied voltages both the nonlinear and the rectified current are quadratic. This current response can be described in terms of second order conductance coefficients and for a generic mesoscopic conductor they fluctuate randomly from sample to sample. Due to Coulomb interactions the symmetry of transport under magnetic field inversion is broken in a two-terminal setup. Therefore, we consider both the symmetric …
We study the nonlinear interfacial thermal transport across atomic junctions by the quantum self-consistent mean field (QSCMF) theory based on nonequilibrium Green's function approach; the QSCMF theory we propose is very precise and matches well with the exact results from quantum master equations. The nonlinearity at the interface is studied by effective temperature dependent interfacial coupling calculated from the QSCMF theory. We find that nonlinearity can provide an extra channel for phonon transport in addition to the phonon scattering which usually blocks heat transfer. For weak linearl…
We outline the qualitatively different physics behind charging-induced current asymmetries in molecular conductors operating in the weakly interacting self-consistent field (SCF) and the strongly interacting Coulomb Blockade (CB) regimes. A conductance asymmetry arises in SCF because of the unequal mean-field potentials that shift a closed-shell conducting level differently for positive and negative bias. A very different current asymmetry arises for CB due to the unequal number of open-shell excitation channels at opposite bias voltages. The CB regime, dominated by single charge effects, typi…
We report on our theoretical investigation considering the widths of quantized Hall plateaus (QHPs) depending on the density asymmetry induced by the large current within the out-of-linear response regime. We solve the Schrodinger equation within the Hartree type mean field approximation using Thomas Fermi Poisson nonlinear screening theory. We observe that the two dimensional electron system splits into compressible and incompressible regions for certain magnetic field intervals, where the Hall resistance is quantized and the longitudinal resistance vanishes, if an external current is imposed…
We investigate heat rectification in a two-qubit system coupled via the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction. We derive analytical expressions for heat currents and thermal rectification and provide possible physical mechanisms behind the observed results. We show that the anisotropy of DM interaction in itself is insufficient for heat rectification, and some other form of asymmetry is needed. We employ off-resonant qubits as the source of this asymmetry. We find the regime of parameters for higher rectification factors by examining the analytical expressions of rectification obtained from a…
Thermal rectification in thickness asymmetric graphene nanoribbons connecting single-layer with multi-layer graphene is investigated by using classical nonequilibrium molecular dynamics. It is reported that the graphene nanoribbons with thickness-asymmetry have a good thermal rectification. The thermal rectification factor depends on temperature as well as the thickness-ratio of the two-segment. Our results provide a direct evidence that the thermal rectifier can be achieved in a nanostructure crossing two- and three-dimension.
This paper is Comment to the Letter "Oscillatory Spin-Filtering due to Gate Control of Spin-Dependent Interface Conductance", by D. Grundler (PRL 86, 1058 (2001)).
We report mesoscopic dc current generation in an open chaotic quantum dot with ac excitation applied to one of the shape-defining gates. For excitation frequencies large compared to the inverse dwell time of electrons in the dot (i.e., GHz), we find mesoscopic fluctuations of induced current that are fully asymmetric in the applied perpendicular magnetic field, as predicted by recent theory. Conductance, measured simultaneously, is found to be symmetric in field. In the adiabatic (i.e., MHz) regime, in contrast, the induced current is always symmetric in field, suggesting its origin is mesosco…
We report gate-induced enhancement of intrinsic charge rectification without p-n junctions in chiral semiconductor Te under magnetic field B. As gating shifts the chemical potential to the valence band maximum of Te, the charge rectification efficiency is enhanced hundredfold. By integrating model calculations, we attribute the charge rectification to the B-induced asymmetry of the chiral band structure. We also show that the carrier density subject to this asymmetry is augmented by a saddle-point structure near the valence band maximum, which further enhances the gate-tunable charge rectifica…
We have found that the current rectification effect in triple layer (double barrier) (Ga,Mn)As magnetic tunnel junctions strongly depends on the magnetization alignment. The direction as well as the amplitude of the rectification changes with the alignment, which can be switched by bi-directional spin-injection with very small threshold currents. A possible origin of the rectification is energy dependence of the density of states around the Fermi level. Tunneling density of states in (Ga,Mn)As shows characteristic dip around zero-bias indicating formation of correlation gap, the asymmetry of w…
We investigate the rectification of thermal fluctuations in a mesoscopic on-chip heat engine. The engine consists of a hot chaotic cavity capacitively coupled to a cold cavity which rectifies the excess noise and generates a directed current. The fluctuation-induced directed current depends on the energy asymmetry of the transmissions of the contacts of the cold cavity to the leads and is proportional to the temperature difference. We discuss the maximal power output of the heat engine and its efficiency.
The model of thermal rectifier based on the asymmetry of interaction of the molecular chain ends with thermostats is proposed in this work. The rectification mechanism is not related to the chain asymmetry, but to the asymmetry of the interaction of chain ends with thermostats, for instance, due to different lengths of the end thermostats. The chain can be homogeneous, it is only important that the thermal conductivity of the chain should depend on temperature strict monotonically. The effect is maximal when convergence of the thermal conductivity with increasing length just begins to manifest…
We report measurements on a Si-MOSFET sample with a slot in the upper gate, allowing for different electron densities n_{1,2} across the slot. The dynamic longitudinal resistance was measured by the standard lock-in technique, while maintaining a large DC current through the source-drain channel. We find that the conductance of the sample in a strong parallel magnetic field is asymmetric with respect to the DC current direction. This asymmetry increases with magnetic field. The results are interpreted in terms of electron spin accumulation or depletion near the slot.
We use the non-equilibrium Green function (NEGF) method in the ballistic limit to provide a quantitative description of the conductance of graphene pn junctions - an important building block for graphene electronics devices. In this paper, recent experiments on graphene junctions are explained by a ballistic transport model, but only if the finite junction transition width, Dw, is accounted for. In particular, the experimentally observed anamolous increase in the resistance asymmetry between nn and np junctions under low source/drain charge density conditions is also quantitatively captured by…
We investigate polyethylene imine and diazonium salts as stable, complementary dopants on graphene. Transport in graphene devices doped with these molecules exhibits asymmetry in electron and hole conductance. The conductance of one carrier is preserved, while the conductance of the other carrier decreases. Simulations based on nonequilibrium Green's function formalism suggest that the origin of this asymmetry is imbalanced carrier injection from the graphene electrodes caused by misalignment of the electrode and channel neutrality points.
Rectification of electron wave-packets propagating along a quasi-one dimensional chain is commonly achieved via the simultaneous action of nonlinearity and longitudinal asymmetry, both confined to a limited portion of the chain termed wave diode. However, it is conceivable that, in the presence of an external magnetic field, spatial asymmetry perpendicular to the direction of propagation suffices to ensure rectification. This is the case of a nonlinear ring-shaped lattice with different upper and lower halves (diode), which is attached to two elastic chains (leads). The resulting device is mir…
We have investigated the lattice thermal transport across the asymmetric tilt grain boundary between armchair and zigzag graphene by nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD). We have observed significant temperature drop and ultra-low temperature-dependent thermal boundary resistance. More importantly, we find an unexpected thermal rectification phenomenon. The thermal conductivity and Kapitza conductance is direction-dependent. The effect of thermal rectification could be amplified by increasing the difference of temperature imposed on two sides. Our results propose a promising kind of therma…
The conductance profiles of magnetic transition metal atoms, such as Fe, Co and Mn, deposited on surfaces and probed by a scanning tunneling microscope (STM), provide detailed information on the magnetic excitations of such nano-magnets. In general the profiles are symmetric with respect to the applied bias. However a set of recent experiments has shown evidence for inherent asymmetries when either a normal or a spin-polarized STM tip is used. In order to explain such asymmetries here we expand our previously developed perturbative approach to electron-spin scattering to the spin- polarized ca…
We propose the possibilities of designing nano-scale rectifiers using mesoscopic rings. A single mesoscopic ring is used for half-wave rectification, while full-wave rectification is achieved using two such rings and in both cases each ring is threaded by a time varying magnetic flux $ϕ$ which plays a central role in the rectification action. Within a tight-binding framework, all the calculations are done based on the Green's function formalism. We present numerical results for the two-terminal conductance and current which support the general features of half-wave and full-wave rectifications…
We measure the rectified dc currents resulting when a 3-terminal semiconductor device with gate-dependent conductance is driven with an ac gate voltage. The rectified currents exhibit surprisingly complex behaviour as the dc source-drain bias voltage, the dc gate voltage and the amplitude of the ac gate voltage are varied. We obtain good agreement between our data and a model based on simple assumptions about the stray impedances on the sample chip, over a wide frequency range. This method is applicable to many types of experiment which involve ac gating of a non-linear device, and where an un…
We present fluctuation relations that connect spin-polarized current and noise in mesoscopic conductors. In linear response, these relations are equivalent to the fluctuation-dissipation theorem that relates equilibrium current--current correlations to the linear conductance. More interestingly, in the weakly nonlinear regime of transport, these relations establish a connection between the leading-order rectification spin conductance, the spin noise susceptibility and the third cumulant of spin current fluctuations at equilibrium. Our results are valid even for systems in the presence of magne…
We discuss the possibility of getting rectification operation in graphene nanoribbon (GNR). For a system to be a rectifier, it must be physically asymmetric and we induce the asymmetry in GNR by introducing nanopores. The rectification properties are discussed for differently structured nanopores. We find that shape and orientation of the nanopores are critical and sensitive to the degree of current rectification. As the choice of Fermi energy is crucial for obtaining significant current rectification, explicit dependence of Fermi energy on the degree of current rectification is also studied f…
A theoretical model is proposed to describe asymmetric gate-voltage dependence of conductance and noise in two-terminal ballistic graphene devices. The model is analyzed independently within the self-consistent Hartree and Thomas-Fermi approximations. Our results justify the prominent role of metal contacts in recent experiments with suspended graphene flakes. The contact-induced electrostatic potentials in graphene demonstrate a power-law decay with the exponent varying from -1 to -0.5. Within our model we explain electron-hole asymmetry and strong Fabri-Perot oscillations of the conductance …
In a recent work [L. Merker, S. Kirchner, E. Munoz, and T. A. Costi, Phys. Rev. B 87, 165132 (2013)], the authors compared results of numerical renormalization group and a perturbative approach for the dependence on temperature T and magnetic field B of the conductance through a quantum dot described by the impurity Anderson model, for small T and B. We show that the equation used to extract the dependence on B from NRG results is incorrect out of the particle-hole symmetric case. As a consequence, in the Kondo regime, the correct NRG results have a weaker dependence on B and the disagreement …
We present a thermal device based on the near-field interaction between two substrates made of a polar and a metal-insulator-transition material. As a result of the temperature dependence of the optical properties, this device acts as a thermal rectifier, implying a strong asymmetry in the heat flux when reversing the two temperatures. By covering both substrates with a graphene sheet we show a significant enhancement of rectification coefficient. By investigating the flux spectral properties along with its distance dependence, we prove that this enhancement is associated to a change in the po…
The appearance and evolution of an anomalous conductance plateau at 0.4 (in units of 2e2/h) in an In0.52Al0.48As/InAs quantum point contact (QPC), in the presence of lateral spin-orbit coupling, has been studied at T=4.2K as a function of the potential asymmetry between the in-plane gates of the QPC. The anomalous plateau, a signature of spin polarization in the channel, appears only over an intermediate range (around 3 V) of bias asymmetry. It is quite robust, being observed over a maximum range of nearly 1V of the sweep voltage common to the two in-plane gates. Our conductance measurements s…
The transport properties of a octane-dithiol (ODT) molecule coupled to Au(001) leads are analyzed using density functional theory and non-equilibrium Green functions. It is shown that a symmetric molecule can turn into a diode under influence of a local electric field created by an external charged probe. The origin of the asymmetry of the current--voltage ($I-V$) dependence is traced back to the appearance of a probe induced quasi--local state in the pseudogap of the ODT molecule. The induced state affects electron transport, provided it is close to the Fermi level of the leads. An asymmetric…
We have performed nonlinear transport measurements as a function of a perpendicular magnetic field in a semiconductor Aharonov-Bohm ring connected to two leads. While the voltage-symmetric part of the conductance is symmetric in magnetic field, the voltage-antisymmetric part of the conductance is not symmetric. These symmetry relations are compatible with the scattering theory for nonlinear mesoscopic transport. The observed asymmetry can be tuned continuously by changing the gate voltages near the arms of the ring, showing that the phase of the nonlinear conductance in a two-terminal interfer…
We develop a time dependent random matrix theory describing the influence of a time-dependent perturbation on mesoscopic conductance fluctuations in open quantum dots. The effect of external field is taken into account to all orders of perturbation theory, and our results are applicable to both weak and strong fields. We obtain temperature and magnetic field dependences of conductance fluctuations. The amplitude of conductance fluctuations is determined by electron temperature in the leads rather than by the width of electron distribution function in the dot. The asymmetry of conductance with …
A thermal diode based on the asymmetric radiative heat transfer between nanoparticles assisted by the nonreciprocal graphene plasmons waveguides is proposed in this work. The thermal diode system consists of two particles and a drift-biased suspended graphene sheet in close proximity of them. Nonreciprocal graphene plasmons are induced by the drift currents in the graphene sheet, and then couple to the waves emitted by the particles in near-field regime. Based on the asymmetry with respect to their propagation direction of graphene plasmons, the thermal rectification between the two particles …
We evaluate the proposed resonant terahertz (THz) detectors on the base of field-effect transistors (FETs) with split gates, electrically induced lateral p-n junctions, uniform graphene layer (GL) or perforated (in the p-n junction depletion region) graphene layer (PGL) channel. The perforated depletion region forms an array of the nanoconstions or nanoribbons creating the barriers for the holes and electrons. The operation of the GL-FET- and PGL-FET detectors is associated with the rectification of the ac current across the lateral p-n junction enhanced by the excitation of bound plasmonic os…
We study the non-linear conductance $\mathcal{G}\sim\partial^2I/\partial V^2|_{V=0}$ in coherent quasi-1D weakly disordered metallic wires. The analysis is based on the calculation of two fundamental correlators (correlations of conductance's functional derivatives and correlations of injectivities), which are obtained explicitly by using diagrammatic techniques. In a coherent wire of length $L$, we obtain $\mathcal{G}\sim0.006\,E_\mathrm{Th}^{-1}$ (and $\langle\mathcal{G}\rangle=0$), where $E_\mathrm{Th}=D/L^2$ is the Thouless energy and $D$ the diffusion constant; the small dimensionless fac…
The conductance and the Fano factor in a graphene sheet in the ballistic regime are calculated. The electrostatic potential in the sheet is modeled by a trapezoid barrier, which allows to use the exact solution of the Dirac equation in a uniform electric field in the slope areas (the two lateral sides of the trapezoid). A special attention is devoted to asymmetry with respect to the sign of the gate voltage, which is connected with the difference between the Klein tunneling and the over-barrier reflection. The comparison of the developed theory with the experiment supports the conclusion that …
Majorana signatures in an asymmetrically coupled quantum dot--topological superconducting nanowire junction
National Institute for Research and Development of Isotopic and Molecular Technologies（同位素和分子技术研究与发展国家研究所）；Faculty of Physics, Babeș-Bolyai University（巴比什-博雅伊大学物理学院）；Department of Physics, California State University, Fullerton（加州州立大学富勒顿分校物理系）
We perform electrical transport measurements in graphene with several sample geometries. In particular, we design ``invasive'' probes crossing the whole graphene sheet as well as ``external'' probes connected through graphene side arms. The four-probe conductance measured between external probes varies linearly with charge density and is symmetric between electron and hole types of carriers. In contrast measurements with invasive probes give a strong electron-hole asymmetry and a sub-linear conductance as a function of density. By comparing various geometries and types of contact metal, we sho…
We investigate departures of the Onsager relations in the nonlinear regime of electronic transport through mesoscopic systems. We show that the nonlinear current--voltage characteristic is not an even function of the magnetic field due only to the magnetic-field dependence of the screening potential within the conductor. We illustrate this result for two types of conductors: A quantum Hall bar with an antidot and a chaotic cavity connected to quantum point contacts. For the chaotic cavity we obtain through random matrix theory an asymmetry in the fluctuations of the nonlinear conductance that …
Here, we report the observation of a hitherto unreported optoelectronic effect, namely a light-induced diode-like response in multi-layered MoSe$_2$ field-effect transistors whose sense of current rectification is controllable through a gate voltage. We argue, through numerical simulations, that this behavior results from the difference in the size of the Schottky barriers between drain and source metal contacts. Each barrier can be modeled as a Schottky diode but with opposite senses of current rectification between them, with the diode response resulting from the light induced promotion of p…
By using four-terminal configurations, we investigated the dependence of longitudinal and diagonal resistances of a graphene p-n interface on the quantum-Hall edge-state equilibration position. The resistance of a p-n device in our four-terminal scheme is asymmetric with respect to the zero point where the filling factor ($ν$) of the entire graphene vanishes. This resistance asymmetry is caused by the chiral-direction-dependent change of the equilibration position and leads to a deeper insight into the equilibration process of the quantum-Hall edge states in a bipolar graphene system.
We present numerical studies of non-linear conduction in graphene nanoribbons when a bias potential is applied between the source and drain electrodes. We find that the conductance quantization plateaus show asymmetry between the electron and hole branches if the potential in the ribbon equals the source or drain electrode potential and strong electron (hole) scattering occurs. The scattering may be at the ends of a uniform ballistic ribbon connecting wider regions of graphene or may be due to defects in the ribbon. We argue that, in ribbons with strong defect scattering, the ribbon potential …
We explore the effects of asymmetry of hopping parameters between double parallel quantum dots and the leads on the conductance and a possibility of local magnetic moment formation in this system using functional renormalization group approach with the counterterm. We demonstrate a possibility of a quantum phase transition to a local moment regime (so called singular Fermi liquid (SFL) state) for various types of hopping asymmetries and discuss respective gate voltage dependences of the conductance. It is shown, that depending on the type of the asymmetry, the system can demonstrate either a f…
We examine contributions to the dc-current of mesoscopic samples which are non-linear in applied voltage. In the presence of a magnetic field, the current can be decomposed into components which are odd (antisymmetric) and even (symmetric) under flux reversal. For a two-terminal chaotic cavity, these components turn out to be very sensitive to the strength of the Coulomb interaction and the asymmetry of the contact conductances. For both two- and multi-terminal quantum dots we discuss correlations of current non-linearity in voltage measured at different magnetic fields and temperatures.
We investigate the electronic transport properties of unbiased and biased bilayer graphene nanoribbon in n-p and n-n junctions subject to a perpendicular magnetic field. Using the non-equilibrium Green's function method and the Landauer-Büttiker formalism, the conductance is studied for the cases of clean, on-site, and edge disordered bilayer graphene. We show that the lowest Hall plateau remains unchanged in the presence of disorder, whereas asymmetry destroys both the plateaus and conductance quantization. In addition, we show that disorder induces an enhancement of the conductance in the n-…
We report on a first-principles study of the conductance through graphene suspended between Al contacts as a function of junction length, width, and orientation. The charge transfer at the leads and into the freestanding section gives rise to an electron-hole asymmetry in the conductance and in sufficiently long junctions induces two conductance minima at the energies of the Dirac points for suspended and clamped regions, respectively. We obtain the potential profile along a junction caused by doping and provide parameters for effective model calculations of the junction conductance with weakl…
We discuss the conductance of a Luttinger liquid interrupted by a quantum dot containing a single resonant level. Using bosonisation and re-fermionisation methods, we find a mapping to a Kondo-type problem which possesses a non-trivial Toulouse-type solvable point. At this point, we obtain an analytic expression for the non-linear current-voltage characteristics and analyse the differential conductance and the width of the resonance peak as functions of bias and gate voltages, temperature, and barrier asymmetry. We also determine the exact scaling function for the linear conductance.
When a bilayer of graphene is placed in a suitably configured field effect device, an asymmetry gap can be generated and the carrier concentration made different in each layer. This provides a tunable semiconducting gap, and the valence and the conductance band no longer meet at the two Dirac points of the graphene Brillouin zone. We calculate the optical conductivity of such a semiconductor with particular emphasis on the optical spectral weight redistribution brought about by changes in gap and chemical potential due to charging. We derive an algebraic formula for arbitrary value of the chem…
