Kondo screening suppression by spin-orbit interaction in quantum dots

We study the transport properties of a quantum dot embedded in an Aharonov-Bohm ring in the presence of spin-orbit interactions. Using a numerical renormalization group analysis of the system in the Kondo regime, we find that the competition of Aharonov-Bohm and spin-orbit dynamical phases induces a strong suppression of the Kondo state singlet, somewhat akin to an effective intrinsic magnetic field in the system. This effective field breaks the spin degeneracy of the localized state and produces a finite magnetic moment in the dot. By introducing an {\em in-plane} Zeeman field we show that the Kondo resonance can be fully restored, reestablishing the spin singlet and a desired spin filtering behavior in the Kondo regime, which may result in full spin polarization of the current through the ring.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Electron Pair Resonance in the Coulomb Blockade

We study many-body corrections to the cotunneling current via a localized state with energy $\epsilon_d$ at large bias voltages $V$. We show that the transfer of {\em electron pairs}, enabled by the Coulomb repulsion in the localized level, results in ionization resonance peaks in the third derivative of the current with respect to $V$, centered at $eV=\pm 2\epsilon_d/3$. Our results predict the existence of previously unnoticed structure within Coulomb-blockade diamonds.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Detection of Quantum Noise from an Electrically-Driven Two-Level System

Quantum mechanics can strongly influence the noise properties of mesoscopic devices. To probe this effect we have measured the current fluctuations at high-frequency (5-90 GHz) using a superconductor-insulator-superconductor tunnel junction as an on-chip spectrum analyser. By coupling this frequency-resolved noise detector to a quantum device we can measure the high-frequency, non-symmetrized noise as demonstrated for a Josephson junction. The same scheme is used to detect the current fluctuations arising from coherent charge oscillations in a two-level system, a superconducting charge qubit. A narrow band peak is observed in the spectral noise density at the frequency of the coherent charge oscillations.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure

Quantum criticality in Kondo quantum dot coupled to helical edge states of interacting 2D topological insulators

We investigate theoretically the quantum phase transition (QPT) between the one-channel Kondo (1CK) and two-channel Kondo (2CK) fixed points in a quantum dot coupled to helical edge states of interacting 2D topological insulators (2DTI) with Luttinger parameter $0<K<1$. The model has been studied in Ref. 21, and was mapped onto an anisotropic two-channel Kondo model via bosonization. For K<1, the strong coupling 2CK fixed point was argued to be stable for infinitesimally weak tunnelings between dot and the 2DTI based on a simple scaling dimensional analysis[21]. We re-examine this model beyond the bare scaling dimension analysis via a 1-loop renormalization group (RG) approach combined with bosonization and re-fermionization techniques near weak-coupling and strong-coupling (2CK) fixed points. We find for K -->1 that the 2CK fixed point can be unstable towards the 1CK fixed point and the system may undergo a quantum phase transition between 1CK and 2CK fixed points. The QPT in our model comes as a result of the combined Kondo and the helical Luttinger physics in 2DTI, and it serves as the first example of the 1CK-2CK QPT that is accessible by the controlled RG approach. We extract quantum critical and crossover behaviors from various thermodynamical quantities near the transition. Our results are robust against particle-hole asymmetry for 1/2<K<1.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures, more details added, typos corrected, revised Sec. IV, V, Appendix A and

Tunnelling magnetoresistance anomalies of a Coulomb blockaded quantum dot

We consider quantum transport and tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) through an interacting quantum dot in the Coulomb blockade regime, attached to ferromagnetic leads. We show that there exist two kinds of anomalies of TMR, which have different origin. One type, associated with TMR sign change and appearing at conductance resonances, is of single particle origin. The second type, inducing a pronounced increase of TMR value far beyond 100%, is caused by electron correlations. It is manifested in-between Coulomb blockade conductance peaks. Both types of anomalies are discussed for zero and finite bias and their robustness to the temperature increase is also demonstrated. The results are presented in the context of recent experiments on semiconductor quantum dots in which similar features of TMR have been observed.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, Revtex style, to appaear in Phys. Rev. B extended discussion added, some typographic errors correcte

Mechanism of half-frequency electric dipole spin resonance in double quantum dots: Effect of nonlinear charge dynamics inside the singlet manifold

Electron dynamics in quantum dots manifests itself in spin-flip spectra through electric dipole spin resonance (EDSR). Near a neutrality point separating two different singlet charged states of a double quantum dot, charge dynamics inside a $2\times2$ singlet manifold can be described by a 1/2-pseudospin. In this region, charge dynamics is highly nonlinear and strongly influenced by flopping its soft pseudospin mode. As a result, the responses to external driving include first and second harmonics of the driving frequency and their Raman satellites shifted by the pseudospin frequency. In EDSR spectra of a spin-orbit couplet doublet dot, they manifest themselves as charge satellites of spin-flip transitions. The theory describes gross features of the anomalous half-frequency EDSR in spin blockade spectra [Laird et al., Semicond. Sci. Techol. {\bf 24}, 064004 (2009)].Comment: One figure, one equation, comments adde

Single Wall Nanotubes: Atomic Like Behaviour and Microscopic Approach

Recent experiments about the low temperature behaviour of a Single Wall Carbon Nanotube (SWCNT) showed typical Coulomb Blockade (CB) peaks in the zero bias conductance and allowed us to investigate the energy levels of interacting electrons. Other experiments confirmed the theoretical prediction about the crucial role which the long range nature of the Coulomb interaction plays in the correlated electronic transport through a SWCNT with two intramolecular tunneling barriers. In order to investigate the effects on low dimensional electron systems due to the range of electron electron repulsion, we introduce a model for the interaction which interpolates well between short and long range regimes. Our results could be compared with experimental data obtained in SWCNTs and with those obtained for an ideal vertical Quantum Dot (QD). For a better understanding of some experimental results we also discuss how defects and doping can break some symmetries of the bandstructure of a SWCNT.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Tunable few electron quantum dots in InAs nanowires

Quantum dots realized in InAs are versatile systems to study the effect of spin-orbit interaction on the spin coherence, as well as the possibility to manipulate single spins using an electric field. We present transport measurements on quantum dots realized in InAs nanowires. Lithographically defined top-gates are used to locally deplete the nanowire and to form tunneling barriers. By using three gates, we can form either single quantum dots, or two quantum dots in series along the nanowire. Measurements of the stability diagrams for both cases show that this method is suitable for producing high quality quantum dots in InAs.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure