Transient dynamics of a molecular quantum dot with a vibrational degree of freedom

We investigate the transient effects occurring in a molecular quantum dot described by an Anderson-Holstein Hamiltonian which is instantly coupled to two fermionic leads biased by a finite voltage. In the limit of weak electron-phonon interaction, we use perturbation theory to determine the time-dependence of the dot population and the average current. The limit of strong coupling is accessed by means of a self-consistent time-dependent mean-field approximation. These comple- mentary approaches allow us to investigate the dynamics of the inelastic effects occurring when the applied bias voltage exceeds the phonon frequency and the emergence of bistability.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

FORTRAN optical lens design program

Computer program uses the principles of geometrical optics to design optical systems containing up to 100 planes, conic or polynomial aspheric surfaces, 7 object points, 6 colors, and 200 rays. This program can be used for the automatic design of optical systems or for the evaluation of existing optical systems

Magnetic susceptibility in quasi one-dimensional Ba2V3O9: chain segmentation versus the staggered field effect

A pronounced Curie-like upturn of the magnetic susceptibility chi(T) of the quasi one-dimensional spin chain compound Ba2V3O9 has been found recently. Frequently this is taken as a signature for a staggered field mechanism due to the presence of g-factor anisotropy and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. We calculate this contribution within a realistic structure of vanadium 3d- and oxygen 2p-orbitals and conclude that this mechanism is far too small to explain experimental results. We propose that the Curie term is rather due to a segmentation of spin chains caused by broken magnetic bonds which leads to uncompensated S=1/2 spins of segments with odd numbers of spins. Using a finite-temperature Lanczos method we calculate their effective moment and show that ~1% of broken magnetic bonds is sufficient to reproduce the anomalous low-T behavior of chi(T) in Ba2V3O9.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, REVTeX 4, minor corrections to the text, references adde

Dynamic response functions and helical gaps in interacting Rashba nanowires with and without magnetic fields

A partially gapped spectrum due to the application of a magnetic field is one of the main probes of Rashba spin-orbit coupling in nanowires. Such a "helical gap" manifests itself in the linear conductance, as well as in dynamic response functions such as the spectral function, the structure factor, or the tunnelling density of states. In this paper, we investigate theoretically the signature of the helical gap in these observables with a particular focus on the interplay between Rashba spin-orbit coupling and electron-electron interactions. We show that in a quasi-one-dimensional wire, interactions can open a helical gap even without magnetic field. We calculate the dynamic response functions using bosonization, a renormalization group analysis, and the exact form factors of the emerging sine-Gordon model. For special interaction strengths, we verify our results by refermionization. We show how the two types of helical gaps, caused by magnetic fields or interactions, can be distinguished in experiments.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, v2 refs adde

Simulation and theory of fluid demixing and interfacial tension of mixtures of colloids and non-ideal polymers

An extension of the Asakura-Oosawa-Vrij model of hard sphere colloids and non-adsorbing polymers, that takes polymer non-ideality into account through a repulsive stepfunction pair potential between polymers, is studied with grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations and density functional theory. Simulation results validate previous theoretical findings for the shift of the bulk fluid demixing binodal upon increasing strength of polymer-polymer repulsion, promoting the tendency to mix. For increasing strength of the polymer-polymer repulsion, simulation and theory consistently predict the interfacial tension of the free colloidal liquid-gas interface to decrease significantly for fixed colloid density difference in the coexisting phases, and to increase for fixed polymer reservoir packing fraction.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Detecting nonlocal Cooper pair entanglement by optical Bell inequality violation

Based on the Bardeen Cooper Schrieffer (BCS) theory of superconductivity, the coherent splitting of Cooper pairs from a superconductor to two spatially separated quantum dots has been predicted to generate nonlocal pairs of entangled electrons. In order to test this hypothesis, we propose a scheme to transfer the spin state of a split Cooper pair onto the polarization state of a pair of optical photons. We show that the produced photon pairs can be used to violate a Bell inequality, unambiguously demonstrating the entanglement of the split Cooper pairs.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, v3 with added reference

Multiple phase slips phenomena in mesoscopic superconducting rings

We investigate the behavior of a mesoscopic one-dimensional ring in an external magnetic field by simulating the time dependent Ginzburg-Landau equations with periodic boundary conditions. We analyze the stability and the different possible evolutions for the phase slip phenomena starting from a metastable state. We find a stability condition relating the winding number of the initial solution and the number of flux quanta penetrating the ring. The analysis of multiple phase slips solutions is based on analytical results and simulations. The role of the ratio of two characteristic times u is studied for the case of a multiple phase slips transition. We found out that if u>>1, consecutive multiple phase slips will be more favorable than simultaneous ones. If u>1 is often a necessary condition to reach the ground state. The influence of the Langevin noise on the kinetics of the phase transition is discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure