P-wave Cooper pair splitting

Splitting of Cooper pairs has recently been realized experimentally for s-wave Cooper pairs. A split Cooper pair represents an entangled two-electron pair state which has possible application in on-chip quantum computation. Likewise the spin-activity of interfaces in nanoscale tunnel junctions has been investigated theoretically and experimentally in recent years. However, the possible implications of spin-active interfaces in Cooper pair splitters so far have not been investigated. We analyse the current and the cross correlation of currents in a superconductor ferromagnet beamsplitter including spin-active scattering. Using the Hamiltonian formalism we calculate the cumulant generating function of charge transfer. As a first step, we discuss characteristics of the conductance for crossed Andreev reflection in superconductor ferromagnet beamsplitters with s-wave and p-wave superconductors and no spin-active scattering. In a second step, we consider spin-active scattering and show how to realize p-wave splitting only using a s-wave superconductor via the process of spin-flipped crossed Andreev reflection. We present results for the conductance and cross correlations. Spin-activity of interfaces in Cooper pair splitters allows for new features in ordinary s-wave Cooper pair splitters, that can otherwise only be realised by using p-wave superconductors. In particular it provides access to Bell states different from the typical spin singlet state.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, accepted by Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology, references correcte

Charge transfer statistics and entanglement in normal-quantum dot-superconductor hybrid structures

We analyze the full counting statistics (FCS) of a single-site quantum dot coupled to multiple metallic electrodes in the normal state and a superconductor for arbitrary transmission. We present an analytical solution of the problem taking into account the full energy dependence of the transmission coefficient. We identify two transport processes as sources of entanglement between the current carriers by observing positive cross current correlations. Furthermore, we consider ferromagnetic electrodes and show how they can be used as detectors in experiments violating the Bell-Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, typos fixed, references adde

Luttinger liquid behavior in single wall nanotubes

Transport properties of metallic single-wall nanotubes are examined based on the Luttinger liquid theory. Focusing on a nanotube transistor setup, the linear conductance is computed from the Kubo formula using perturbation theory in the lead-tube tunnel conductances. For sufficiently long nanotubes and high temperature, phonon backscattering should lead to an anomalous temperature dependence of the resistivity.Comment: 5 pages, to appear in IWEPNM99 proceedings 1999, incl 2 figure

Full counting statistics of interacting quantum dots contacted by a normal metal and a superconductor

We investigate the effects of Coulomb interaction on charge transfer through a quantum dot attached to a normal and a superconducting lead. While for voltages much larger than the gap we recover the usual result for normal conductors, for voltages much smaller than the gap superconducting correlations lead to a drastically different behavior. Especially, the usual charge doubling in the normal case is reflected in the occurence of quartets due to the onsite interaction.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, accepted by EP

Resonant tunnelling in interacting 1D systems with an AC modulated gate

We present an analysis of transport properties of a system consisting of two half-infinite interacting one-dimensional wires connected to a single fermionic site, the energy of which is subject to a periodic time modulation. Using the properties of the exactly solvable Toulouse point we derive an integral equation for the localised level Keldysh Green's function which governs the behaviour of the linear conductance. We investigate this equation numerically and analytically in various limits. The period-averaged conductance G displays a surprisingly rich behaviour depending on the parameters of the system. The most prominent feature is the emergence of an intermediate temperature regime at low frequencies, where G is proportional to the line width of the respective static conductance saturating at a non-universal frequency dependent value at lower temperatures.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures (eps files

BCS theory of driven superconductivity

We study the impact of a time-dependent external driving of the lattice phonons in a minimal model of a BCS superconductor. Upon evaluating the driving-induced vertex corrections of the phonon-mediated electron-electron interaction, we show that parametric phonon driving can be used to elevate the critical temperature $T_c$, while a dipolar phonon drive has no effect. We provide simple analytic expressions for the enhancement factor of $T_c$. Furthermore, a mean-field analysis of a nonlinear phonon-phonon interaction also shows that phonon anharmonicities further amplify $T_c$. Our results hold universally for the large class of normal BCS superconductors