190 research outputs found
Inelastic electron relaxation rates caused by Spin M/2 Kondo Impurities
We study a spin S=M/2--Kondo system coupled to electrons in an arbitrary
nonequilibrium situation above Kondo temperature. Coupling to hot electrons
leads to an increased inverse lifetime of pseudo particles, related to the
Korringa width. This in turn is responsible for the increased inelastic
relaxation rates of the electronic system. The rates are related to spin--spin
correlation functions which are determined using a projection operator
formalism. The results generalize recent findings for S=1/2--Kondo impurities
which have been used to describe energy relaxation experiments in disordered
mesoscopic wires.Comment: Brief Report, 4 page
Charge Fluctuations in the Single Electron Box
Quantum fluctuations of the charge in the single electron box are
investigated. Based on a diagrammatic expansion we calculate the average island
charge number and the effective charging energy in third order in the tunneling
conductance. Near the degeneracy point where the energy of two charge states
coincides, the perturbative approach fails, and we explicitly resum the leading
logarithmic divergencies to all orders. The predictions for zero temperature
are compared with Monte Carlo data and with recent renormalization group
results. While good agreement between the third order result and numerical data
justifies the perturbative approach in most of the parameter regime relevant
experimentally, near the degeneracy point and at zero temperature the
resummation is shown to be insufficient to describe strong tunneling effects
quantitatively. We also determine the charge noise spectrum employing a
projection operator technique. Former perturbative and semiclassical results
are extended by the approach.Comment: 20 pages, 15 figure
Conductance of the Single Electron Transistor for Arbitrary Tunneling Strength
We study the temperature and gate voltage dependence of the conductance of
the single electron transistor focusing on highly conducting devices. Electron
tunneling is treated nonperturbatively by means of path integral Monte Carlo
techniques and the conductance is determined from the Kubo formula. A
regularized singular value decomposition scheme is employed to calculate the
conductance from imaginary time simulation data. Our findings are shown to
bridge between available analytical results in the semiclassical and
perturbative limits and are found to explain recent experimental results in a
regime not accessible by earlier methods.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Conductance of the single-electron transistor: A comparison of experimental data with Monte Carlo calculations
We report on experimental results for the conductance of metallic
single-electron transistors as a function of temperature, gate voltage and
dimensionless conductance. In contrast to previous experiments our transistor
layout allows for a direct measurement of the parallel conductance and no ad
hoc assumptions on the symmetry of the transistors are necessary. Thus we can
make a comparison between our data and theoretical predictions without any
adjustable parameter. Even for rather weakly conducting transistors significant
deviations from the perturbative results are noted. On the other hand, path
integral Monte Carlo calculations show remarkable agreement with experiments
for the whole range of temperatures and conductances.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, revtex4, corrected typos, submitted to PR
High Temperature Conductance of the Single Electron Transistor
The linear conductance of the single electron transistor is determined in the
high temperature limit. Electron tunneling is treated nonperturbatively by
means of a path integral formulation and the conductance is obtained from
Kubo's formula. The theoretical predictions are valid for arbitrary conductance
and found to explain recent experimental data.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Coulomb Charging Effects for Finite Channel Number
We consider quantum fluctuations of the charge on a small metallic grain
caused by virtual electron tunneling to a nearby electrode. The average
electron number and the effective charging energy are determined by means of
perturbation theory in the tunneling Hamiltonian. In particular we discuss the
dependence of charging effects on the number N of tunneling channels. Earlier
results for N>>1 are found to be approached rather rapidly with increasing N.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
Effect of the Tunneling Conductance on the Coulomb Staircase
Quantum fluctuations of the charge in the single electron box are
investigated. The rounding of the Coulomb staircase caused by virtual electron
tunneling is determined by perturbation theory up to third order in the
tunneling conductance and compared with precise Monte Carlo data computed with
a new algorithm. The remarkable agreement for large conductance indicates that
presently available experimental data on Coulomb charging effects in metallic
nanostructures can be well explained by finite order perturbative results.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Self-Energy Correction to the Two-Photon Decay Width in Hydrogenlike Atoms
We investigate the gauge invariance of the leading logarithmic radiative
correction to the two-photon decay width in hydrogenlike atoms. It is shown
that an effective treatment of the correction using a Lamb-shift "potential"
leads to equivalent results in both the length as well as the velocity gauges
provided all relevant correction terms are taken into account. Specifically,
the relevant radiative corrections are related to the energies that enter into
the propagator denominators, to the Hamiltonian, to the wave functions, and to
the energy conservation condition that holds between the two photons; the form
of all of these effects is different in the two gauges, but the final result is
shown to be gauge invariant, as it should be. Although the actual calculation
only involves integrations over nonrelativistic hydrogenic Green functions, the
derivation of the leading logarithmic correction can be regarded as slightly
more complex than that of other typical logarithmic terms. The dominant
radiative correction to the 2S two-photon decay width is found to be -2.020536
(alpha/pi) (Zalpha)^2 ln[(Zalpha)^-2] in units of the leading nonrelativistic
expression. This result is in agreement with a length-gauge calculation [S. G.
Karshenboim and V. G. Ivanov, e-print physics/9702027], where the coefficient
was given as -2.025(1).Comment: 9 pages, RevTe
Coulomb blockade in one-dimensional arrays of high conductance tunnel junctions
Properties of one-dimensional (1D) arrays of low Ohmic tunnel junctions (i.e.
junctions with resistances comparable to, or less than, the quantum resistance
k) have been studied experimentally
and theoretically. Our experimental data demonstrate that -- in agreement with
previous results on single- and double-junction systems -- Coulomb blockade
effects survive even in the strong tunneling regime and are still clearly
visible for junction resistances as low as 1 k. We have developed a
quasiclassical theory of electron transport in junction arrays in the strong
tunneling regime. Good agreement between the predictions of this theory and the
experimental data has been observed. We also show that, due to both heating
effects and a relatively large correction to the linear relation between the
half-width of the conductance dip around zero bias voltage, , and the
measured electronic temperature, such arrays are inferior to those
conventionally used in the Coulomb Blockade Thermometry (CBT). Still, the
desired correction to the half-width, , can be determined
rather easily and it is proportional to the magnitude of the conductance dip
around zero bias voltage, . The constant of proportionality is a
function of the ratio of the junction and quantum resistances, ,
and it is a pure strong tunneling effect.Comment: LaTeX file + five postscript figure
Electron transport through interacting quantum dots
We present a detailed theoretical investigation of the effect of Coulomb
interactions on electron transport through quantum dots and double barrier
structures connected to a voltage source via an arbitrary linear impedance.
Combining real time path integral techniques with the scattering matrix
approach we derive the effective action and evaluate the current-voltage
characteristics of quantum dots at sufficiently large conductances. Our
analysis reveals a reach variety of different regimes which we specify in
details for the case of chaotic quantum dots. At sufficiently low energies the
interaction correction to the current depends logarithmically on temperature
and voltage. We identify two different logarithmic regimes with the crossover
between them occurring at energies of order of the inverse dwell time of
electrons in the dot. We also analyze the frequency-dependent shot noise in
chaotic quantum dots and elucidate its direct relation to interaction effects
in mesoscopic electron transport.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures. References added, discussion slightly extende
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