Bistability of persistent currents in mesoscopic rings

We study the persistent currents flowing in a mesoscopic ring threaded by a magnetic flux and connected to a stub of finite length. Multistability processes and Coulomb blockade are demonstrated to be present in this system. These properties are functions of the magnetic flux crossing the ring which plays the role that the external applied potential fulfills in the multistability behaviour of the standard mesoscopic heterostructures.Comment: 13 pages (Revtex), 4 PostScript figures. Send e-mail to: [email protected]

Switching the sign of photon induced exchange interactions in semiconductor microcavities with finite quality factors

We investigate coupling of localized spins in a semiconductor quantum dot embedded in a microcavity with a finite quality factor. The lowest cavity mode and the quantum dot exciton are coupled forming a polariton, whereas excitons interact with localized spins via exchange. The finite quality of the cavity Q is incorporated in the model Hamiltonian by adding an imaginary part to the photon frequency. The Hamiltonian, which treats photons, spins and excitons quantum mechanically, is solved exactly. Results for a single polariton clearly demonstrate the existence of a resonance, sharper as the temperature decreases, that shows up as an abrupt change between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic indirect anisotropic exchange interaction between localized spins. The origin of this spin-switching finite-quality-factor effect is discussed in detail remarking on its dependence on model parameters, i.e., light-matter coupling, exchange interaction between impurities, detuning and quality factor. For parameters corresponding to the case of a (Cd,Mn)Te quantum dot, the resonance shows up for Q around 70 and detuning around 10 meV. In addition, we show that, for such a quantum dot, and the best cavities actually available (quality factors better than 200) the exchange interaction is scarcely affected.Comment: 7 figures, submitted to PR

Kondo effect of an adsorbed cobalt phthalocyanine (CoPc) molecule: the role of quantum interference

A recent experimental study showed that, distorting a CoPc molecule adsorbed on a Au(111) surface, a Kondo effect is induced with a temperature higher than 200 K. We examine a model in which an atom with strong Coulomb repulsion (Co) is surrounded by four atoms on a square (molecule lobes), and two atoms above and below it representing the apex of the STM tip and an atom on the gold surface (all with a single, half-filled, atomic orbital). The Hamiltonian is solved exactly for the isolated cluster, and, after connecting the leads (STM tip and gold), the conductance is calculated by standard techniques. Quantum interference prevents the existence of the Kondo effect when the orbitals on the square do not interact (undistorted molecule); the Kondo resonance shows up after switching on that interaction. The weight of the Kondo resonance is controlled by the interplay of couplings to the STM tip and the gold surface, and between the molecule lobes.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figura

Conductance through an array of quantum dots

We propose a simple approach to study the conductance through an array of $N$ interacting quantum dots, weakly coupled to metallic leads. Using a mapping to an effective site which describes the low-lying excitations and a slave-boson representation in the saddle-point approximation, we calculated the conductance through the system. Explicit results are presented for N=1 and N=3: a linear array and an isosceles triangle. For N=1 in the Kondo limit, the results are in very good agreement with previous results obtained with numerical renormalization group (NRG). In the case of the linear trimer for odd $N$, when the parameters are such that electron-hole symmetry is induced, we obtain perfect conductance $G_0=2e^2/h$. The validity of the approach is discussed in detail.Comment: to appear in Phys. Rev.

Classical trajectories in quantum transport at the band center of bipartite lattices with or without vacancies

Here we report on several anomalies in quantum transport at the band center of a bipartite lattice with vacancies that are surely due to its chiral symmetry, namely: no weak localization effect shows up, and, when leads have a single channel the transmission is either one or zero. We propose that these are a consequence of both the chiral symmetry and the large number of states at the band center. The probability amplitude associated to the eigenstate that gives unit transmission ressembles a classical trajectory both with or without vacancies. The large number of states allows to build up trajectories that elude the blocking vacancies explaining the absence of weak localization.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Effect of topology on the transport properties of two interacting dots

The transport properties of a system of two interacting dots, one of them directly connected to the leads constituting a side-coupled configuration (SCD), are studied in the weak and strong tunnel-coupling limits. The conductance behavior of the SCD structure has new and richer physics than the better studied system of two dots aligned with the leads (ACD). In the weak coupling regime and in the case of one electron per dot, the ACD configuration gives rise to two mostly independent Kondo states. In the SCD topology, the inserted dot is in a Kondo state while the side-connected one presents Coulomb blockade properties. Moreover, the dot spins change their behavior, from an antiferromagnetic coupling to a ferromagnetic correlation, as a consequence of the interaction with the conduction electrons. The system is governed by the Kondo effect related to the dot that is embedded into the leads. The role of the side-connected dot is to introduce, when at resonance, a new path for the electrons to go through giving rise to the interferences responsible for the suppression of the conductance. These results depend on the values of the intra-dot Coulomb interactions. In the case where the many-body interaction is restricted to the side-connected dot, its Kondo correlation is responsible for the scattering of the conduction electrons giving rise to the conductance suppression

A Novel Approach to Study Highly Correlated Nanostructures: The Logarithmic Discretization Embedded Cluster Approximation

This work proposes a new approach to study transport properties of highly correlated local structures. The method, dubbed the Logarithmic Discretization Embedded Cluster Approximation (LDECA), consists of diagonalizing a finite cluster containing the many-body terms of the Hamiltonian and embedding it into the rest of the system, combined with Wilson's idea of a logarithmic discretization of the representation of the Hamiltonian. The physics associated with both one embedded dot and a double-dot side-coupled to leads is discussed in detail. In the former case, the results perfectly agree with Bethe ansatz data, while in the latter, the physics obtained is framed in the conceptual background of a two-stage Kondo problem. A many-body formalism provides a solid theoretical foundation to the method. We argue that LDECA is well suited to study complicated problems such as transport through molecules or quantum dot structures with complex ground states.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figure