16 research outputs found
Shot noise of spin polarized electrons
The shot noise of spin polarized electrons is shown to be generically
dependent upon spin-flip processes. Such a situation represents perhaps the
simplest instance where the two-particle character of current fluctuations out
of equilibrium is explicit, leading to trinomial statistics of charge transfer
in a single channel model. We calculate the effect of spin-orbit coupling,
magnetic impurities, and precession in an external magnetic field on the noise
in the experimentally relevant cases of diffusive wires and lateral
semiconductor dots, finding dramatic enhancements of the Fano factor. The
possibility of using the shot noise to measure the spin-relaxation time in an
open mesoscopic system is raised.Comment: Published version. Minor clarifications and correction
Superconductive proximity effect in interacting disordered conductors
We present a general theory of the superconductive proximity effect in
disordered normal--superconducting (N-S) structures, based on the recently
developed Keldysh action approach. In the case of the absence of interaction in
the normal conductor we reproduce known results for the Andreev conductance G_A
at arbitrary relation between the interface resistance R_T and the diffusive
resistance R_D. In two-dimensional N-S systems, electron-electron interaction
in the Cooper channel of normal conductor is shown to strongly affect the value
of G_A as well as its dependence on temperature, voltage and magnetic field. In
particular, an unusual maximum of G_A as a function of temperature and/or
magnetic field is predicted for some range of parameters R_D and R_T. The
Keldysh action approach makes it possible to calculate the full statistics of
charge transfer in such structures. As an application of this method, we
calculate the noise power of an N-S contact as a function of voltage,
temperature, magnetic field and frequency for arbitrary Cooper repulsion in the
normal metal and arbitrary values of the ratio R_D/R_T.Comment: RevTeX, 28 pages, 18 PostScript figures; added and updated reference
Shot noise in tunneling transport through molecules and quantum dots
We consider electrical transport through single molecules coupled to metal
electrodes via tunneling barriers. Approximating the molecule by the Anderson
impurity model as the simplest model which includes Coulomb charging effects,
we extend the ``orthodox'' theory to expand current and shot noise
systematically order by order in the tunnel couplings. In particular, we show
that a combined measurement of current and shot noise reveals detailed
information of the system even in the weak-coupling limit, such as the ratio of
the tunnel-coupling strengths of the molecule to the left and right electrode,
and the presence of the Coulomb charging energy. Our analysis holds for
single-level quantum dots as well.Comment: 8 page
Clauser-Horne inequality for electron counting statistics in multiterminal mesoscopic conductors
In this paper we derive the Clauser-Horne (CH) inequality for the full
electron counting statistics in a mesoscopic multiterminal conductor and we
discuss its properties. We first consider the idealized situation in which a
flux of entangled electrons is generated by an entangler. Given a certain
average number of incoming entangled electrons, the CH inequality can be
evaluated for different numbers of transmitted particles. Strong violations
occur when the number of transmitted charges on the two terminals is the same
(), whereas no violation is found for . We then consider
two actual setups that can be realized experimentally. The first one consists
of a three terminal normal beam splitter and the second one of a hybrid
superconducting structure. Interestingly, we find that the CH inequality is
violated for the three terminal normal device. The maximum violation scales as
1/M and for the entangler and normal beam splitter, respectively, 2
being the average number of injected electrons. As expected, we find full
violation of the CH inequality in the case of the superconducting system.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures. Ref. adde
Shot Noise at High Temperatures
We consider the possibility of measuring non-equilibrium properties of the
current correlation functions at high temperatures (and small bias). Through
the example of the third cumulant of the current () we demonstrate
that odd order correlation functions represent non-equilibrium physics even at
small external bias and high temperatures. We calculate for a quasi-one-dimensional diffusive constriction. We calculate the
scaling function in two regimes: when the scattering processes are purely
elastic and when the inelastic electron-electron scattering is strong. In both
cases we find that interpolates between two constants. In the low (high)
temperature limit is strongly (weakly) enhanced (suppressed) by the
electron-electron scattering.Comment: 11 pages 4 fig. submitted to Phys. Rev.
Theory of charge transport in diffusive normal metal / unconventional singlet superconductor contacts
We analyze the transport properties of contacts between unconventional
superconductor and normal diffusive metal in the framework of the extended
circuit theory. We obtain a general boundary condition for the Keldysh-Nambu
Green's functions at the interface that is valid for arbitrary transparencies
of the interface. This allows us to investigate the voltage-dependent
conductance (conductance spectrum) of a diffusive normal metal (DN)/
unconventional singlet superconductor junction in both ballistic and diffusive
cases. For d-wave superconductor, we calculate conductance spectra numerically
for different orientations of the junctions, resistances, Thouless energies in
DN, and transparencies of the interface. We demonstrate that conductance
spectra exhibit a variety of features including a -shaped gap-like
structure, zero bias conductance peak (ZBCP) and zero bias conductance dip
(ZBCD). We show that two distinct mechanisms: (i) coherent Andreev reflection
(CAR) in DN and (ii) formation of midgap Andreev bound state (MABS) at the
interface of d-wave superconductors, are responsible for ZBCP, their relative
importance being dependent on the angle between the interface normal
and the crystal axis of d-wave superconductors. For , the ZBCP is due
to CAR in the junctions of low transparency with small Thouless energies, this
is similar to the case of diffusive normal metal / insulator /s-wave
superconductor junctions. With increase of from zero to , the
MABS contribution to ZBCP becomes more prominent and the effect of CAR is
gradually suppressed. Such complex spectral features shall be observable in
conductance spectra of realistic high- junctions at very low temperature
Theory of charge transport in diffusive normal metal / conventional superconductor point contacts
Tunneling conductance in diffusive normal metal / insulator / s-wave
superconductor (DN/I/S) junctions is calculated for various situations by
changing the magnitudes of the resistance and Thouless energy in DN and the
transparency of the insulating barrier. The generalized boundary condition
introduced by Yu. Nazarov [Superlattices and Microstructures 25 1221 (1999)] is
applied, where the ballistic theory by Blonder Tinkham and Klapwijk (BTK) and
the diffusive theory by Volkov Zaitsev and Klapwijk based on the boundary
condition of Kupriyanov and Lukichev (KL) are naturally reproduced. It is shown
that the proximity effect can enhance (reduce) the tunneling conductance for
junctions with a low (high) transparency. A wide variety of dependencies of
tunneling conductance on voltage bias is demonstrated including a -shaped
gap like structure, a zero bias conductance peak (ZBCP) and a zero bias
conductance dip (ZBCD)
Electronic Transport in Hybrid Mesoscopic Structures: A Nonequilibrium Green Function Approach
We present a unified transport theory of hybrid structures, in which a
confined normal state () sample is sandwiched between two leads each of
which can be either a ferromagnet () or a superconductor () via tunnel
barriers. By introducing a four-dimensional Nambu-spinor space, a general
current formula is derived within the Keldysh nonequilibrium Green function
formalism, which can be applied to various kinds of hybrid mesoscopic systems
with strong correlations even in the nonequilibrium situation. Such a formula
is gauge invariant. We also demonstrate analytically for some quantities, such
as the difference between chemical potentials, superconductor order parameter
phases and ferromagnetic magnetization orientations, that only their relative
value appears explicitly in the current expression. When applied to specific
structures, the formula becomes of the Meir-Wingreen-type favoring strong
correlation effects, and reduces to the Landauer-B\"uttiker-type in
noninteracting systems such as the double-barrier resonant structures, which we
study in detail beyond the wide-band approximation.Comment: 24 pages, 12 eps figures, Revtex