Resonant Spin-Dependent Tunneling in Spin-Valve Junctions in the Presence of Paramagnetic Impurities

The tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) of F/O/F magnetic junctions, (F's are ferromagnetic layers and O is an oxide spacer) in the presence of magnetic impurities within the barrier, is investigated. We assume that magnetic couplings exist both between the spin of impurity and the bulk magnetization of the neighboring magnetic electrode, and between the spin of impurity and the spin of tunneling electron. Consequently, the resonance levels of the system formed by a tunneling electron and a paramagnetic impurity with spin S=1, are a sextet. As a result the resonant tunneling depends on the direction of the tunneling electron spin. At low temperatures and zero bias voltage the TMR of the considered system may be larger than TMR of the same structure without paramagnetic impurities. It is calculated that an increase in temperature leads to a decrease in the TMR amplitude due to excitation of spin-flip processes resulting in mixing of spin up and down channels. It is also shown that asymmetry in the location of the impurities within the barrier can lead to asymmetry in $I(V)$ characteristics of impurity assisted current and two mechanisms responsible for the origin of this effect are established. The first one is due to the excitation of spin-flip processes at low voltages and the second one arises from the shift of resonant levels inside the insulator layer under high applied voltages.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys.Rev.

Full Current Statistics in the Regime of Weak Coulomb Interaction

We evaluate the full statistics of the current via a Coulomb island that is strongly coupled to the leads. This strong coupling weakens Coulomb interaction. We show that in this case the effects of the interaction can be incorporated into the renormalization of transmission eigenvalues of the scatterers that connect the island and the leads. We evaluate the Coulomb blockade gap in the current-voltage characteristics, the value of the gap being exponentially suppressed as compared to the classical charging energy of the island.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Analytically solvable model of an electronic Mach-Zehnder interferometer

We consider a class of models of non-equilibrium electronic Mach-Zehnder interferometers built on integer quantum Hall edges states. The models are characterized by the electron-electron interaction being restricted to the inner part of the interferometer and transmission coefficients of the quantum quantum point contacts, defining the interferometer, which may take arbitrary values from zero to one. We establish an exact solution of these models in terms of single-particle quantities --- determinants and resolvents of Fredholm integral operators. In the general situation, the results can be obtained numerically. In the case of strong charging interaction, the operators acquire the block Toeplitz form. Analyzing the corresponding Riemann-Hilbert problem, we reduce the result to certain singular single-channel determinants (which are a generalization of Toeplitz determinants with Fisher-Hartwig singularities), and obtain an analytic result for the interference current (and, in particular, for the visibility of Aharonov-Bohm oscillations). Our results, which are in good agreement with experimental observations, show an intimate connection between the observed "lobe" structure in the visibility of Aharonov-Bohm oscillations and multiple branches in the asymptotics of singular integral determinants.Comment: 29 pages, 10 figure

Interaction Quench in Nonequilibrium Luttinger Liquids

We study the relaxation dynamics of a nonequilibrium Luttinger liquid after a sudden interaction switch-on ("quench"), focussing on a double-step initial momentum distribution function. In the framework of the non-equilibrium bosonization, the results are obtained in terms of singular Fredholm determinants that are evaluated numerically and whose asymptotics are found analytically. While the quasi-particle weights decay exponentially with time after the quench, this is not a relaxation into a thermal state, in view of the integrability of the model. The steady-state distribution emerging at infinite times retains two edges which support Luttinger-liquid-like power-law singularities smeared by dephasing. The obtained critical exponents and the dephasing length are found to depend on the initial nonequilibrium state.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Theory of non-equilibrium electronic Mach-Zehnder interferometer

We develop a theoretical description of interaction-induced phenomena in an electronic Mach-Zehnder interferometer formed by integer quantum Hall edge states (with \nu =1 and 2 channels) out of equilibrium. Using the non-equilibrium functional bosonization framework, we derive an effective action which contains all the physics of the problem. We apply the theory to the model of a short-range interaction and to a more realistic case of long-range Coulomb interaction. The theory takes into account interaction-induced effects of dispersion of plasmons, charging, and decoherence. In the case of long-range interaction we find a good agreement between our theoretical results for the visibility of Aharonov-Bohm oscillations and experimental data.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figure

Frequency dispersion of photon-assisted shot noise in mesoscopic conductors

We calculate the low-frequency current noise for AC biased mesoscopic chaotic cavities and diffusive wires. Contrary to what happens for the admittance, the frequency dispersion is not dominated by the electric response time (the "RC" time of the circuit), but by the time that electrons need to diffuse through the structure (dwell time or diffusion time). Frequency dispersion of noise stems from fluctuations of the Fermi distribution function that preserve charge neutrality. Our predictions can be verified with present experimental technology.Comment: 5 pages, 3 Figure

Magnetoresistance of atomic-sized contacts: an ab-initio study

The magnetoresistance (MR) effect in metallic atomic-sized contacts is studied theoretically by means of first-principle electronic structure calculations. We consider three-atom chains formed from Co, Cu, Si, and Al atoms suspended between semi-infinite Co leads. We employ the screened Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker Green's function method for the electronic structure calculation and evaluate the conductance in the ballistic limit using the Landauer approach. The conductance through the constrictions reflects the spin-splitting of the Co bands and causes high MR ratios, up to 50%. The influence of the structural changes on the conductance is studied by considering different geometrical arrangements of atoms forming the chains. Our results show that the conductance through s-like states is robust against geometrical changes, whereas the transmission is strongly influenced by the atomic arrangement if p or d states contribute to the current.Comment: Revised version, presentation of results is improved, figure 2 is splitted to two figure

Fluctuation Theorem in a Quantum-Dot Aharonov-Bohm Interferometer

In the present study, we investigate the full counting statistics in a two-terminal Aharonov-Bohm interferometer embedded with an interacting quantum dot. We introduce a novel saddle-point solution for a cumulant-generating function, which satisfies the fluctuation theorem and accounts for the interaction in the mean-field level approximation. Nonlinear transport coefficients satisfy universal relations imposed by microscopic reversibility, though the scattering matrix itself is not reversible. The skewness can be finite even in equilibrium, owing to the interaction and is proportional to the asymmetric component of nonlinear conductance.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Nonequilibrium kinetics of a disordered Luttinger liquid

We develop a kinetic theory for strongly correlated disordered one-dimensional electron systems out of equilibrium, within the Luttinger liquid model. In the absence of inhomogeneities, the model exhibits no relaxation to equilibrium. We derive kinetic equations for electron and plasmon distribution functions in the presence of impurities and calculate the equilibration rate $\gamma_E$. Remarkably, for not too low temperature and bias voltage, $\gamma_E$ is given by the elastic backscattering rate, independent of the strength of electron-electron interaction, temperature, and bias.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, revised versio

Tunneling into Nonequilibrium Luttinger Liquid with Impurity

We evaluate tunneling rates into/from a voltage biased quantum wire containing weak backscattering defect. Interacting electrons in such a wire form a true nonequilibrium state of the Luttinger liquid (LL). This state is created due to inelastic electron backscattering leading to the emission of nonequilibrium plasmons with typical frequency $\hbar \omega \leq U$. The tunneling rates are split into two edges. The tunneling exponent at the Fermi edge is positive and equals that of the equilibrium LL, while the exponent at the side edge $E_F-U$ is negative if Coulomb interaction is not too strong.Comment: 4+ pages, 5 figure