The Realization of Artificial Kondo Lattices in Nanostructured Arrays

The interplay of magnetic energies in a Kondo lattice is the underlying physics of a heavy fermion system. Creating an artificial Kondo lattice system by localizing the moments in an ordered metallic array provides a prototype system to tune and study the energetic interplay while avoiding the complications introduced by random alloying of the material. In this article, we create a Kondo lattice system by fabricating a hexagonally ordered nanostructured array using niobium as the host metal and cobalt as the magnetic constituent. Electrical transport measurements and magnetoresistivity measurements of these artificial lattices show that the competing exchange coupling properties can be easily tuned by controlling the impurity percentage. These artificial Kondo lattice systems enable the exploration of an artificial superconductor which should lead to a deep understanding of the role of magnetism in unconventional superconductors.Comment: Artificial Magnetic Crystal

Numerical renormalization-group study of the Bose-Fermi Kondo model

We extend the numerical renormalization-group method to Bose-Fermi Kondo models (BFKMs), describing a local moment coupled to a conduction band and a dissipative bosonic bath. We apply the method to the Ising-symmetry BFKM with a bosonic bath spectral function $\eta(\omega)\propto \omega^s$, of interest in connection with heavy-fermion criticality. For $0<s<1$, an interacting critical point, characterized by hyperscaling of exponents and $\omega/T$-scaling, describes a quantum phase transition between Kondo-screened and localized phases. Connection is made to other results for the BFKM and the spin-boson model.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Entanglement of Two Impurities through Electron Scattering

We study how two magnetic impurities embedded in a solid can be entangled by an injected electron scattering between them and by subsequent measurement of the electron's state. We start by investigating an ideal case where only the electronic spin interacts successively through the same unitary operation with the spins of the two impurities. In this case, high (but not maximal) entanglement can be generated with a significant success probability. We then consider a more realistic description which includes both the forward and back scattering amplitudes. In this scenario, we obtain the entanglement between the impurities as a function of the interaction strength of the electron-impurity coupling. We find that our scheme allows us to entangle the impurities maximally with a significant probability

Spectral properties of locally correlated electrons in a BCS superconductor

We present a detailed study of the spectral properties of a locally correlated site embedded in a BCS superconducting medium. To this end the Anderson impurity model with superconducting bath is analysed by numerical renormalisation group (NRG) calculations. We calculate one and two-particle dynamic response function to elucidate the spectral excitation and the nature of the ground state for different parameter regimes with and without particle-hole symmetry. The position and weight of the Andreev bound states is given for all relevant parameters. We also present phase diagrams for the different ground state parameter regimes. This work is also relevant for dynamical mean field theory extensions with superconducting symmetry breaking.Comment: 22 pages, 12 figure

Gate-voltage dependence of Kondo effect in a triangular quantum dot

We study the conductance through a triangular triple quantum dot, which are connected to two noninteracting leads, using the numerical renormalization group (NRG). It is found that the system shows a variety of Kondo effects depending on the filling of the triangle. The SU(4) Kondo effect occurs at half-filling, and a sharp conductance dip due to a phase lapse appears in the gate-voltage dependence. Furthermore, when four electrons occupy the three sites on average, a local S=1 moment, which is caused by the Nagaoka mechanism, is induced along the triangle. The temperature dependence of the entropy and spin susceptibility of the triangle shows that this moment is screened by the conduction electrons via two separate stages at different temperatures. The two-terminal and four-terminal conductances show a clear difference at the gate voltages, where the SU(4) or the S=1 Kondo effects occurring.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figs: typos just below (4) are corrected, results are not affecte

Spontaneous interlayer coherence in bilayer Kondo systems

Bilayer Kondo systems present interesting models to illustrate the competition between the Kondo effect and intermoment exchange. Such bilayers can exhibit two sharply distinct Fermi liquid phases which are distinguished by whether or not the local moments participate in the Fermi sea. We study these phases and the evolution from one to the other upon changing Kondo coupling. We argue that an ordered state with spontaneous interlayer phase coherence generically intervenes between the two Fermi liquids. Such a condensate phase breaks a U(1) symmetry and is bounded by a finite-temperature Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. Based on general arguments and mean-field calculations we investigate the phase diagram and associated quantum phase transitions.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figs, (v2) misprints in eqs corrected, final version as publishe

Sum-rule Conserving Spectral Functions from the Numerical Renormalization Group

We show how spectral functions for quantum impurity models can be calculated very accurately using a complete set of ``discarded'' numerical renormalization group eigenstates, recently introduced by Anders and Schiller. The only approximation is to judiciously exploit energy scale separation. Our derivation avoids both the overcounting ambiguities and the single-shell approximation for the equilibrium density matrix prevalent in current methods, ensuring that relevant sum rules hold rigorously and spectral features at energies below the temperature can be described accurately.Comment: 4 pages + 1 page appendix, 2 figure

Conductance of deformable molecules with interaction

Zero temperature linear response conductance of molecules with Coulomb interaction and with various types of phonon modes is analysed together with local occupation, local moment, charge fluctuations and fluctuations of molecular deformation. Deformation fluctuations are quantitatively related to charge fluctuations which exhibit similarity also to static charge susceptibility.Comment: 4 pages, color figure

Infrared study of valence transition compound YbInCu4 using cleaved surfaces

Optical reflectivity R(w) of YbInCu4 single crystals has been measured across its first-order valence transition at T_v ~ 42 K, using both polished and cleaved surfaces. R(w) measured on cleaved surfaces Rc(w) was found much lower than that on polished surface Rp(w) over the entire infrared region. Upon cooling through T_v, Rc(w) showed a rapid change over a temperature range of less than 2 K, and showed only minor changes with further cooling. In contrast, Rp(w) showed much more gradual and continuous changes across T_v, similarly to previously reported data on polished surfaces. The present result on cleaved surfaces demonstrates that the microscopic electronic structures of YbInCu4 observed with infrared spectroscopy indeed undergo a sudden change upon the valence transition. The gradual temperature-evolution of Rp(w) is most likely due to the compositional and/or Yb-In site disorders caused by polishing.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Fig.1(a) correcte