Quantum Transport through Nanostructures with Orbital Degeneracies

Geometric symmetries cause orbital degeneracies in a molecule's spectrum. In a single-molecule junction, these degeneracies are lifted by various symmetry-breaking effects. We study quantum transport through such nanostructures with an almost degenerate spectrum. We show that the master equation for the reduced density matrix must be derived within the singular-coupling limit as opposed to the conventional weak-coupling limit. This results in signatures of the density matrix's off-diagonal elements in the transport characteristics

Chaos and Interacting Electrons in Ballistic Quantum Dots

We show that the classical dynamics of independent particles can determine the quantum properties of interacting electrons in the ballistic regime. This connection is established using diagrammatic perturbation theory and semiclassical finite-temperature Green functions. Specifically, the orbital magnetism is greatly enhanced over the Landau susceptibility by the combined effects of interactions and finite size. The presence of families of periodic orbits in regular systems makes their susceptibility parametrically larger than that of chaotic systems, a difference which emerges from correlation terms.Comment: 4 pages, revtex, includes 3 postscript fig

General Localization Lengths for Two Interacting Particles in a Disordered Chain

The propagation of an interacting particle pair in a disordered chain is characterized by a set of localization lengths which we define. The localization lengths are computed by a new decimation algorithm and provide a more comprehensive picture of the two-particle propagation. We find that the interaction delocalizes predominantly the center-of-mass motion of the pair and use our approach to propose a consistent interpretation of the discrepancies between previous numerical results.Comment: 4 pages, 2 epsi figure

Semiclassical Approach to Orbital Magnetism of Interacting Diffusive Quantum Systems

We study interaction effects on the orbital magnetism of diffusive mesoscopic quantum systems. By combining many-body perturbation theory with semiclassical techniques, we show that the interaction contribution to the ensemble averaged quantum thermodynamic potential can be reduced to an essentially classical operator. We compute the magnetic response of disordered rings and dots for diffusive classical dynamics. Our semiclassical approach reproduces the results of previous diagrammatic quantum calculations.Comment: 8 pages, revtex, includes 1 postscript fi

Enhancement of surface photocurrents in topological insulators using magnetic superlattices

The gapless surface states of topological insulators (TI) can potentially be used to detect and harvest low-frequency infrared light. Nonetheless, it was shown that significant surface photocurrents due to light with frequency below the bulk gap are rather hard to produce. Here we demonstrate that a periodic magnetic pattern added to the surface dramatically enhances surface photocurrents in TI's . The ability to produce substantial photocurrents on TI surfaces from mid-range and far-infrared light could be used in photovoltaic applications, as well as for detection of micrometer wavelength radiation

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

Localization Properties of Two Interacting Electrons in a Disordered Quasi One-Dimensional Potential

We study the transport properties of two electrons in a quasi one-dimensional disordered wire. The electrons are subject to both, a disorder potential and a short range two-body interaction. Using the approach developed by Iida et al. [ Ann. Phys. (N.Y.) 200 (1990) 219 ], the supersymmetry technique, and a suitable truncation of Hilbert space, we work out the two-point correlation function in the framework of a non-linear sigma model. We study the loop corrections to arbitrary order. We obtain a remarkably simple and physically transparent expression for the change of the localization length caused by the two-body interaction.Comment: 10 page

Persistent Currents in Quantum Chaotic Systems

The persistent current of ballistic chaotic billiards is considered with the help of the Gutzwiller trace formula. We derive the semiclassical formula of a typical persistent current $I^{typ}$ for a single billiard and an average persistent current $$ for an ensemble of billiards at finite temperature. These formulas are used to show that the persistent current for chaotic billiards is much smaller than that for integrable ones. The persistent currents in the ballistic regime therefore become an experimental tool to search for the quantum signature of classical chaotic and regular dynamics.Comment: 4 pages (RevTex), to appear in Phys. Rev. B, No.59, 12256-12259 (1999

Level curvature distribution in a model of two uncoupled chaotic subsystems

We study distributions of eigenvalue curvatures for a block diagonal random matrix perturbed by a full random matrix. The most natural physical realization of this model is a quantum chaotic system with some inherent symmetry, such that its energy levels form two independent subsequences, subject to a generic perturbation which does not respect the symmetry. We describe analytically a crossover in the form of a curvature distribution with a tunable parameter namely the ratio of inter/intra subsystem coupling strengths. We find that the peak value of the curvature distribution is much more sensitive to the changes in this parameter than the power law tail behaviour. This observation may help to clarify some qualitative features of the curvature distributions observed experimentally in acoustic resonances of quartz blocks