The non-equilibrium time evolution of an Anderson quantum dot is investigated. The quantum dot is coupled between two leads forming a chemical-potential gradient. We use Kadanoff-Baym dynamic equations within a non-perturbative resummation of the s-channel bubble chains. The effect of the resummation leads to the introduction of a frequency-dependent 4-point vertex. The tunneling to the leads is taken into account exactly. The method allows the determination of the transient as well as stationary transport through the quantum dot, and results are compared with different schemes discussed in the literature (fRG, ISPI, tDMRG and QMC).
We analyze the consequences of a first-order (in the effective Kondo coupling) inter-impurity correlation present in the Two-Impurity Anderson Hamiltonian. This correlation generates a pair of Kondo Doublet states which are responsible for the first (higher energy) Kondo stage of these systems. Applied to systems of quantum dots in a semiconductor heterolayer, these Doublets predict a mainly ferromagnetic dot-dot spin correlation which is different than the expected from the second-order RKKY interaction. In order to effectively screen both dots, a parallel alignment of the dot-spins is favore…
We show that an Anderson Hamiltonian describing a quantum dot connected to multiple leads is integrable. A general expression for the non-linear conductance is obtained by combining the Bethe ansatz exact solution with Landauer-Büttiker theory. In the Kondo regime, a closed form expression is given for the matrix conductance at zero temperature and when all the leads are close to the symmetric point. A bias-induced splitting of the Kondo resonance is possible for three or more leads. Specifically, for $N$ leads, with each at a different chemical potential, there can be $N-1$ Kondo peaks in the…
We derive the transport properties of a quantum dot subject to a source-drain bias voltage at zero temperature and magnetic field. Using the Scattering Bethe Anstaz, a generalization of the traditional Thermodynamic Bethe Ansatz to open systems out of equilibrium, we derive exact results for the quantum dot occupation out of equilibrium and, by introducing phenomenological spin- and charge-fluctuation distribution functions in the computation of the current, obtain the differential conductance for large U/Γ. The Hamiltonian to describe the quantum dot system is the Anderson impurity Hamiltonia…
In the present work we apply the atomic approach to the single impurity Anderson model (SIAM). A general formulation of this approach, that can be applied both to the impurity and to the lattice Anderson Hamiltonian, was developed in a previous work (arXiv:0903.0139v1 [cond-mat.str-el]). The method starts from the cumulant expansion of the periodic Anderson model (PAM), employing the hybridization as perturbation. The atomic Anderson limit is analytically solved and its sixteen eigenenergies and eigenstates are obtained. This atomic Anderson solution, which we call the (AAS), has all the funda…
We theoretically investigate the effects of atomic defect related short-range disorders and electron-electron interactions on Anderson type localization and the magnetic properties of hexagonal armchair graphene quantum dots using an extended mean-field Hubbard model. We observe that randomly distributed defects with concentrations between 1-5\% of the total number of atoms leads to localization alongside magnetic puddle-like structures. We show that localization lenght is not affected by magnetization if there is an even distribution of defects between the two sublattices of the honeycomb lat…
We study a series-coupled double quantum dot in the Kondo regime modeled by the two-impurity Anderson model and find a new conduction-band mediated superexchange interaction that competes with Kondo physics in the strong Coulomb interaction limit. Our numerical renormalization group results, complemented with the higher-order Rayleigh-Schrödinger perturbation theory, show that the novel exchange mechanism leads to clear experimental consequences that can be checked in transport measurements through double quantum dots.
The system of several (N) quantum dots coupled in parallel to the same single-mode conduction channel can be modelled as a single-channel N-impurity Anderson model. Using the generalized Schrieffer-Wolff transformation we show that near the particle-hole symmetric point, the effective Hamiltonian in the local moment regime is the N-impurity S=1/2 Kondo model. The conduction-band-mediated RKKY exchange interaction between the dots is ferromagnetic and at intermediate temperatures locks the moments into a maximal spin S=N/2 ground state. We provide an analytical estimate for the RKKY interaction…
We propose a realization of the two-impurity Anderson model in a double quantum-dot device. When charge transfer between the dots is suppressed the system exhibits a quantum phase transition, controlled by a surface of non-Fermi liquid fixed points parameterized by the charge valences of the dots. Employing conformal field theory techniques, we identify the scaling exponents that govern transport and thermodynamics close to criticality. We also determine the dynamical exponents that set the time scale for buildup of the non-Fermi liquid state after the system is suddenly shifted into the criti…
We study the single impurity Anderson model (SIAM) using the equations of motion method (EOM), the non-crossing approximation (NCA), the one-crossing approximation (OCA), and Wilson's numerical renormalization group (NRG). We calculate the density of states and the linear conductance focusing on their dependence on the chemical potential and on the temperature paying special attention to the Kondo and Coulomb blockade regimes for a large range of model parameters. We report that some standard approximations based on the EOM technique display a rather unexpected poor behavior in the Coulomb blo…
The nonequilibrium time evolution of a quantum dot is studied by means of dynamic equations for time-dependent Greens functions derived from a two-particle-irreducible (2PI) effective action for the Anderson impurity model. Coupling the dot between two leads at different voltages, the dynamics of the current through the dot is investigated. We show that the 2PI approach is capable to describe the dynamical build-up of the Kondo effect, which shows up as a sharp resonance in the spectral function, with a width exponentially suppressed in the electron self coupling on the dot. An external voltag…
We study Anderson orthogonality catastrophe (AOC) for an parabolic quantum dot (PQD), one of the experimentally realizable few-electron systems. The finite number of electrons in PQD causes AOC to be incomplete, with a broad distribution of many-body overlaps. This is a signature of mesoscopic fluctuations and is in agreement with earlier results obtained for chaotic quantum dots. Here, we focus on the effects of degeneracies in PQDs, realized through their inherent shell structures, on AOC. We find rich and interesting behaviours as a function of the strength and position of the perturbation,…
In this work we exploit the integrability of the two-lead Anderson model to compute transport properties of a quantum dot, in and out of equilibrium. Our method combines the properties of integrable scattering together with a Landauer-Buttiker formalism. Although we use integrability, the nature of the problem is such that our results are not generically exact, but must only be considered as excellent approximations which nonetheless are valid all the way through crossover regimes. The key to our approach is to identify the excitations that correspond to scattering states and then to compute t…
We study the transport through a strongly interacting Anderson quantum dot at zero-temperature using the real-time renormalization group (RT-RG) in the framework of a kinetic equation for the reduced density operator. We further develop the general finite temperature real-time transport formalism by introducing field superoperators that obey fermionic statistics. This direct second quantization in Liouville-Fock space strongly simplifies the construction of operators and superoperators which transform irreducibly under the Anderson-model symmetry transformations. The fermionic field superopera…
The single-impurity Anderson model has been the focus of theoretical studies of molecular junctions and the single-electron transistor, a nanostructured device comprising a quantum dot that bridges two otherwise decoupled metallic leads. The low-temperature transport properties of the model are controlled by the ground-state occupation of the quantum dot, a circumstance that recent density-functional approaches have explored. Here we show that the ground-state dot occupation also parametrizes a linear mapping between the thermal dependence of the zero-bias conductance and a universal function …
We calculate the time dependent nonequilibrium current through a single level quantum dot strongly coupled to a vibrational mode. The nonequilibrium real time dynamics caused by an instantaneous coupling of the leads to the quantum dot is discussed using an approximate method. The approach, which is specially designed for the strong polaronic regime, is based on the so-called polaron tunneling approximation. Considering different initial dot occupations, we show that a common steady state is reached after times much larger than the typical electron tunneling times due to a polaron blocking eff…
We present a magneto-photoluminescence study on neutral and charged excitons confined to InAs/GaAs quantum dots. Our investigation relies on a confocal microscope that allows arbitrary tuning of the angle between the applied magnetic field and the sample growth axis. First, from experiments on neutral excitons and trions, we extract the in-plane and on-axis components of the Landé tensor for electrons and holes in the s-shell. Then, based on the doubly negatively charged exciton magneto-photoluminescence we show that the p-electron wave function spreads significantly into the GaAs barriers. We…
Recent experiments have probed quantum dots through transport measurements in the regime where they are described by a two lead Anderson model. In this paper we develop a new method to analytically compute for the first time the corresponding transport properties. This is done by using the exact solvability of the Anderson Hamiltonian, together with a generalization of the Landauer-Buttiker approach to integrable systems. The latter requires proper identification of scattering states, a complex and crucial step in our approach. In the Kondo regime, our results include the zero-field, finite te…
We study the effect of a magnetic field on the conductance through a strongly interacting quantum dot by using the finite temperature extension of Wilson's numerical renormalization group method to dynamical quantities. The quantum dot has one active level for transport and is modelled by an Anderson impurity attached to left and right electron reservoirs. Detailed predictions are made for the linear conductance and the spin-resolved conductance as a function of gate voltage, temperature and magnetic field strength. A strongly coupled quantum dot in a magnetic field acts as a spin filter which…
We calculate the conductance through a single quantum dot coupled to metallic leads, modeled by the spin 1/2 Anderson model. We adopt the finite-U extension of the noncrossing approximation method. Our results are in good agreement with exact numerical renormalization group results both in the high temperature and in the Kondo (low temperature) regime. Thanks to this approach, we were able to fit fairly well recently reported measurements by S. De Franceschi et al. in a quantum dot device. We show that, contrarily to what previously suggested, the conductance of this particular device can be u…
Recent progress in nanoscale manufacturing allowed to experimentally investigate quantum dots coupled to two superconducting leads in controlled and tunable setups. The equilibrium Josephson current was measured in on-chip SQUID devices and subgap states were investigated using weakly coupled metallic leads for spectroscopy. This put back two "classic" problems also on the agenda of theoretical condensed matter physics: the Josephson effect and quantum spins in superconductors. We discuss the status of the theoretical understanding of the Anderson-Josephson quantum dot in equilibrium mainly fo…
The anomalous behavior of electron induced phonon transport is investigated using an Anderson-Holstein based dissipative quantum dot setup under two relevant bias situations: (a) a voltage bias in the absence of an electronic temperature gradient and (b) an electronic temperature gradient at zero voltage. It is shown that the direction of phonon transport in the non-linear regime is different in the two cases since the first case facilitates the accumulation of phonons in the dot and the second case leads to the absorption of phonons in the dot. In the linear regime, both the phonon and electr…
We study the nonequilibrium spectral function of the single-impurity Anderson model connecting with multi-terminal leads. The full dependence on frequency and bias voltage of the nonequilibrium self-energy and spectral function is obtained analytically up to the second-order perturbation regarding the interaction strength $U$. High and low bias voltage properties are analyzed for a generic multi-terminal dot, showing a crossover from the Kondo resonance to the Coulomb peaks with increasing bias voltage. For a dot where the particle-hole symmetry is not present, we construct a current-preservin…
We describe linear and nonlinear transport across a single impurity Anderson model quantum dot with intermediate coupling to the leads, i.e., with tunnel coupling of the order of the thermal energy k_B T. The coupling is large enough that sequential tunneling processes alone do not suffice to properly describe the transport characteristics. Upon applying a density matrix approach, the current is expressed in terms of rates obtained by considering a very small class of diagrams which dress the sequential tunneling processes by charge fluctuations. We call this the "dressed second order" (DSO) a…
We study the Anderson model in which a configuration with a doublet is hybridized with another with a singlet and a triplet. We calculate the conductance through the system as a function of temperature and bias voltage, near the quantum critical line for which the system is exactly solvable. The results explain recent transport measurements in a single-molecule quantum dot.
Anderson Orthogonality as Measurement Backaction in Coupled Quantum Dots
Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute, University of British Columbia（不列颠哥伦比亚大学斯图尔特·布拉斯量子物质研究所）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia（不列颠哥伦比亚大学物理与天文学系）；School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University（特拉维夫大学物理与天文学院）；Department of Physics, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev（内盖夫本-古里安大学物理系）
We study the combined effects of electron-phonon coupling and dot-lead repulsion in the transport properties of the Anderson-Holstein model. We employ a recently proposed nonperturbative method to calculate the transient response of the system. By varying the initial conditions for the time propagation the current exhibits transient oscillations of different nature. We are able to disentangle two dynamical processes, namely the local charge rearrangement due to the dot-lead contacting and the establishment of the nonequilbrium many-body state due to the application of the external bias. These …
Self-consistent perturbation expansion up to the second order in the interaction strength is used to study a single-level quantum dot with local Coulomb repulsion attached asymmetrically to two generally different superconducting leads. At zero temperature and wide range of other parameters the spin-symmetric version of the expansion yields excellent results for the position of the $0-π$ impurity quantum phase transition boundary and Josephson current together with the energy of Andreev bound states in the $0$-phase as confirmed by numerical calculations using the Numerical Renormalisation Gro…
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 revisited the scaling behavior of the transport properties of a quantum dot system described by the spin-1/2 Anderson model using analytical methods. In the low temperature limit we show that the conductance has a universal behavior with universality between temperature and bias. We compare this result with the empirical formula used to fit the experimental data for conductance in the case of the equilibrium transport through a single channel quantum dot. In the high temperature limit the conductance obtained from the Anderson model is compared with previous results obtained from the Kondo …
The two-level model for a double quantum dot coupled to two leads, which is ubiquitously used to describe charge oscillations, transmission-phase lapses and correlation-induced resonances, is considered in its general form. The model features arbitrary tunnelling matrix elements among the two levels and the leads and between the levels themselves (including the effect of Aharonov-Bohm fluxes), as well as inter-level repulsive interactions. We show that this model is exactly mapped onto a generalized Anderson model of a single impurity, where the electrons acquire a pseudo-spin degree of freedo…
We study theoretically the out-of-equilibrium transport properties of a double quantum dot system in the Kondo regime. We model the system by means of a two-impurity Anderson Hamiltonian. The transport properties are characterized by Kondo effect properties, however, superimposed them, the system possesses novel non-linear bistability behavior.
Optical nanostructures have proven to be meritorious for tailoring the emission properties of quantum emitters. However, unavoidable fabrication imperfections may represent a nuisance. Quite remarkably, disorder offers new opportunities since light can be efficiently confined by random multiple scattering leading to Anderson localization. Here we investigate the effect of such disorder-induced cavities on the emission dynamics of single quantum dots embedded in disordered photonic-crystal waveguides. We present time-resolved measurements of both the total emission from Anderson-localized cavit…
The conductance through two quantum dots in series is studied using general qualitative arguments and quantitative slave-boson mean-field theory. It is demonstrated that measurements of the conductance can explore the phase diagram of the two-impurity Anderson model. Competition between the Kondo effect and the inter-dot magnetic exchange leads to a two-plateau structure in the conductance as a function of gate voltage and a two or three peak structure in the conductance vs. inter-dot tunneling.
We consider the physics of transport through quantum dots in the presence of two tunneling paths. The first path sees electrons hopping on and off the dot while the second path is modeled through a potential scattering-like term. To study the effects of potential scattering, we employ a modified version of the Anderson model. Such a model can be exactly solved through the Bethe ansatz, thus allowing a comprehensive and exact analysis of the zero temperature linear response conductance. We find transport properties to be extremely sensitive to the introduction of a potential scattering term. In…
We study the high- and low-voltage properties of the out-of-equilibrium Anderson model for quantum dots, using a functional method in the Keldysh formalism. The Green's function at the impurity site can be regarded as a functional of a nonequilibrium distribution function. The dependence of the Green's function on the bias voltage V and temperature T arises through the nonequilibrium distribution function. From this behavior as a functional, it is shown that the nonequilibrium Green's function at high-voltage limit is identical to the equilibrium Green's function at high-temperature limit. Thi…
A detailed study of the low-temperature physics of an interacting double quantum dot system in a T-shape configuration is presented. Each quantum dot is modeled by a single Anderson impurity and we include an inter-dot electron-electron interaction to account for capacitive coupling that may arise due to the proximity of the quantum dots. By employing a numerical renormalization group approach to a multi-impurity Anderson model, we study the thermodynamical and transport properties of the system in and out of the Kondo regime. We find that the two-stage-Kondo effect reported in previous works …
We consider transport through quantum dots with two tunneling paths. Interference between paths gives rise to Fano resonances exhibiting Kondo-like physics. In studying such quantum dots, we employ a generalized Anderson model which we argue to be integrable. The exact solution is non-perturbative in the tunneling strengths of both paths. By exploiting this integrability, we compute the zero temperature linear response conductance of the dot and so obtain reasonable quantitative agreement with the experimental measurements reported in Gores et al. PRB 62, 2188 (2000).
We study phase evolution of transmission through a quantum dot with Kondo correlations. By considering a model that includes nonresonant transmission as well as the Anderson impurity, we explain unusually large phase evolution of about $π$ in the Kondo valley observed in recent experiments. We argue that this anomalous phase evolution is a universal property that can be found in the high-temperature Kondo phase in the presence of the time-reversal symmetry.
We study the dependence of the Kondo temperature on the gate voltage in a strongly blockaded quantum dot with a small single-particle level spacing. We show that the dependence cannot be fitted to that of the Anderson impurity model with the gate voltage-independent level width. The effect originates in high-order tunneling processes, which make a dominant contribution to the exchange amplitude when the gate voltage is tuned away from the middle of the Coulomb blockade valley.
We calculate conductance through a quantum dot weakly coupled to metallic contacts by means of Keldysh out of equilibrium formalism. We model the quantum dot with the SU(2) Anderson model and consider the limit of infinite Coulomb repulsion. We solve the interacting system with the numerical diagrammatic Non-Crossing Approximation (NCA). We calculate the conductance as a function of temperature and gate voltage, from differential conductance (dI/dV) curves. We discuss these results in comparison with those from the linear response approach which can be performed directly in equilibrium conditi…
We study the interacting, symmetrically coupled single impurity Anderson model. By employing the nonequilibrium Green's function formalism, we establish an exact relationship between the steady-state charge current flowing through the impurity (dot) and its occupation. We argue that the steady state current-occupation relation can be used to assess the consistency of simulation techniques, and identify spurious transport phenomena. We test this relation in two different model variants: First, we study the Anderson-Holstein model in the strong electron-vibration coupling limit using the polaron…
We analytically study entanglement generation through an open quantum dot system described by the two-lead Anderson model. We exactly obtain the transition rate between the non-entangled incident state in one lead and the outgoing spin-singlet state in the other lead. In the cotunneling process, only the spin-singlet state can transmit. To discuss such an entanglement property in the open quantum system, we construct the exact two-electron scattering state of the Anderson model. It is striking that the scattering state contains spin-singlet bound states induced by the Coulomb interaction. The …
We have made a detailed proposal for a two-channel quantum dot setup. The energy scales in the problem are such that we are able to make connection with the two-channel Anderson model, which, in spite of being well-known in the context of heavy-Fermion systems remained theoretically elusive until recently and lacked a mesoscopic realization. Verification of our precise and robust predictions for the differential capacitance lineshape of the dot will provide an experimental signature of the two-channel behavior.
Double quantum dots offer unique possibilities for the study of many-body correlations. A system containing one Kondo dot and one effectively noninteracting dot maps onto a single-impurity Anderson model with a structured (nonconstant) density of states. Numerical renormalization-group calculations show that while band filtering through the resonant dot splits the Kondo resonance, the singlet ground state is robust. The system can also be continuously tuned to create a pseudogapped density of states and access a quantum critical point separating Kondo and non-Kondo phases.
Thermoelectric transport and current noise through a multilevel Anderson impurity: Three-body Fermi-liquid corrections in quantum dots and magnetic alloys
We study the thermopower and some related transport quantities due to the orbital Kondo effect in a single quantum dot system with a finite value of Coulomb repulsion by means of the noncrossing approximation applied to the multiorbital impurity Anderson model. It is elucidated how the asymmetry of the renormalized tunneling resonance due to the two-orbital Kondo effect causes characteristic behavior of the thermopower at finite temperatures under gate-voltage and magnetic-field control, which is compared with that of the ordinary spin Kondo effect.
Recently, A. Jerez, P. Vitushinsky and M. Lavagna [Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 127203 (2005)] claimed that the transmission phase through a quantum fot, as measured via the Aharonov-Bohm interferometer, differs from the phase which determines the corresponding conductance. Here we show that this claim is wrong for the single level Anderson model, which is usually used to describe the quantum dot. So far, there exists no derivation of this claim from any explicit theoretical model.
Anderson impurity model for semiconductor quantum dot is extended to take into account both particle and hole branches of charge excitations. It is shown that in dots with even number of electrons where the Kondo effect is absent in the ground state, novel midgap excitonic states emerge in the energy spectrum due to Kondo-type shake-up processes. The relevance of the model to rare earth ions adsorbed on metallic surfaces is discussed.
We study the interplay between the Kondo and Andreev-Josephson effects in a quantum dot coupled to one normal and two superconducting (SC) leads. In the large gap limit, the low-energy states of this system can be described exactly by a local Fermi liquid for the interacting Bogoliubov particles. The phase shift and the renormalized parameters for the Bogoliubov particles vary depending on the Josephson phase between the two SC leads. We explore the precise features of a crossover that occurs between the Kondo singlet and local Cooper-pairing states as the Josephson phase varies, using the num…
We apply a theory for the transmission probability of small interacting systems, which was formulated based on the Kubo formalism in our previous study, to a series of quantum dots described by the N-impurity Anderson model. In this report, we present the transmission pobability for the system of N=2 calculated using the order $U^2$ self-energy and vertex corrections. Particularly, we examine the features in the two typical parameter regions, $t<Γ$ and $t>Γ$, where the Kondo effect or the inter-dot correlation dominates. Here, $t$ is the inter-dot transfer and $Γ$ is the level broadening cause…
The transport through a quantum wire with a side coupled quantum dot is studied. We use the X-boson treatment for the Anderson single impurity model in the limit of $U=\infty $. The conductance presents a minimum for values of T=0 in the crossover from mixed-valence to Kondo regime due to a destructive interference between the ballistic channel associated with the quantum wire and the quantum dot channel. We obtain the experimentally studied Fano behavior of the resonance. The conductance as a function of temperature exhibits a logarithmic and universal behavior, that agrees with recent experi…
We generalize the hierarchical equations of motion method to study electron transport through a quantum dot or molecule coupled to one-dimensional interacting leads that can be described as Luttinger liquids. Such leads can be realized, for example, by quantum wires or fractional quantum Hall edge states. In comparison to noninteracting metallic leads, Luttinger liquid leads involve many-body correlations and the single-particle tunneling density of states shows a power-law singularity at the chemical potential. Using the generalized hierarchical equations of motion method, we assess the impor…
We study the effect of electron correlations on a system consisting of a single-level quantum dot with local Coulomb interaction attached to two superconducting leads. We use the single-impurity Anderson model with BCS superconducting baths to study the interplay between the proximity induced electron pairing and the local Coulomb interaction. We show how to solve the model using the continuous-time hybridization-expansion quantum Monte Carlo method. The results obtained for experimentally relevant parameters are compared with results of self-consistent second order perturbation theory as well…
A triangular triple quantum dot gives various Kondo effects, such as the emergence of an electric polarization accompanied by a complete compensation of spin degrees of freedom. The interplay of spin and charge of electrons in quantum dots is investigated using an Anderson model with an equilateral triangular spin cluster, in which a single electron state at one site is hybridized with a conduction band in a lead. The numerical renormalization group analysis shows how a nonzero electric polarization develops with local electrons traveling in the loop and how it depends on the hybridization str…
We study non-equilibrium transport through a single-orbital Anderson model in a magnetic field with spin-dependent hopping amplitudes. In the cotunneling regime it is described by an effective spin-1/2 dot with a Dzyaloshinsky--Moriya--Kondo (DMK) interaction between the spin on the dot and the electron spins in the leads. Using a real-time renormalization group technique we show that at low temperatures (i) the DMK interaction is strongly renormalized, (ii) the renormalized magnetic field acquires a linear voltage dependence, and (iii) the differential conductance exhibits a voltage asymmetry…
The electronic transport through a parallel double quantum-dot molecule attached asymmetrically to leads is studied under a magnetic field. We model the system by means of a non interacting two-impurity Anderson Hamiltonian. We find that the conductance shows Fano and Dicke effects that can be controlled by the magnetic flux.
