Magnon transport and spin current switching through quantum dots

We study the nonequilibrium spin current through a quantum dot consisting of two localized spin-1/2 coupled to two ferromagnetic insulators. The influence of an intra-dot magnetic field and exchange coupling, different dot-reservoir coupling configurations, and the influence of magnon chemical potential differences vs. magnetic field gradients onto the spin current are examined. We discuss various spin switching mechanisms and find that, in contrast to electronic transport, the spin current is very sensitive to the specific coupling configuration and band edges. In particular, we identify 1- and 2-magnon transport processes which can lead to resonances and antiresonances for the spin current.Comment: 10 pages, 15 figure

Dynamical spin-spin correlation functions in the Kondo model out of equilibrium

We calculate the dynamical spin-spin correlation functions of a Kondo dot coupled to two noninteracting leads held at different chemical potentials. To this end we generalize a recently developed real-time renormalization group method in frequency space (RTRG-FS) to allow the calculation of dynamical correlation functions of arbitrary dot operators in systems describing spin and/or orbital fluctuations. The resulting two-loop RG equations are analytically solved in the weak-coupling regime. This implies that the method can be applied provided either the voltage $V$ through the dot or the external magnetic field $h_0$ are sufficiently large, $\max\{V,h_0\}\gg T_K$, where the Kondo temperature $T_K$ is the scale where the system enters the strong-coupling regime. Explicitly, we calculate the longitudinal and transverse spin-spin correlation and response functions as well as the resulting fluctuation-dissipation ratios. The correlation functions in real-frequency space can be calculated in Matsubara space without the need of any analytical continuation. We obtain analytic results for the line-shape, the small- and large-frequency limits and several other features like the height and width of the peak in the transverse susceptibility at $\Omega\approx\tilde{h}$, where $\tilde{h}$ denotes the reduced magnetic field. Furthermore, we discuss how the developed method can be generalized to calculate dynamical correlation functions of other operators involving reservoir degrees of freedom as well.Comment: 30 page

Dissipative quantum mechanics beyond Bloch-Redfield: A consistent weak-coupling expansion of the ohmic spin boson model at arbitrary bias

We study the time dynamics of the ohmic spin boson model at arbitrary bias $\epsilon$ and small coupling $\alpha$ to the bosonic bath. Using perturbation theory and the real-time renormalization group (RG) method we present a consistent zero-temperature weak-coupling expansion for the time evolution of the reduced density matrix one order beyond the Bloch-Redfield solution. We develop a renormalized perturbation theory and present an analytical solution covering the whole range from small to large times, including further results for exponentially small or large times. Resumming all secular terms in all orders of perturbation theory we find exponential decay for all terms of the time evolution. We determine the preexponential functions and find slowly varying logarithmic terms with the renormalized Rabi frequency $\Omega$ as energy scale together with strongly varying parts falling off asymptocially as $1/t$ in leading order, in contrast to the unbiased case. Resumming all logarithmic terms in all orders of perturbation theory via real-time RG we find the correct renormalized tunneling and a power-law behaviour for the oscillating modes with exponent crossing over from $2\alpha$ for exponentially small times to a bias-dependent value $2\alpha \epsilon^2/\Omega^2$ for exponentially large times. Furthermore, we present a degenerate perturbation theory to calculate consistently the purely decaying mode one order beyond Bloch-Redfield.Comment: 27 pages, 2 figure

Bosonization for Beginners --- Refermionization for Experts

This tutorial gives an elementary and self-contained review of abelian bosonization in 1 dimension in a system of finite size $L$, following and simplifying Haldane's constructive approach. As a non-trivial application, we rigorously resolve (following Furusaki) a recent controversy regarding the tunneling density of states, $\rho_{dos} (\omega)$, at the site of an impurity in a Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid: we use finite-size refermionization to show exactly that for g=1/2 its asymptotic low-energy behavior is $\rho_{dos}(\omega) \sim \omega$. This agrees with the results of Fabrizio & Gogolin and of Furusaki, but not with those of Oreg and Finkel'stein (probably because we capture effects not included in their mean-field treatment of the Coulomb gas that they obtained by an exact mapping; their treatment of anti-commutation relations in this mapping is correct, however, contrary to recent suggestions in the literature). --- The tutorial is addressed to readers unfamiliar with bosonization, or for those interested in seeing ``all the details'' explicitly; it requires knowledge of second quantization only, not of field theory. At the same time, we hope that experts too might find useful our explicit treatment of certain subtleties -- these include the proper treatment of the so-called Klein factors that act as fermion-number ladder operators (and also ensure the anti-commutation of different species of fermion fields), the retention of terms of order 1/L, and a novel, rigorous formulation of finite-size refermionization of both $e^{-i \Phi(x)}$ and the boson field $\Phi (x)$ itself.Comment: Revtex, 70 pages. Changes: Regarding the controversial tunneling density of states at an impurity in a g=1/2 Luttinger liquid, we (1) give a new, more explicit calculation, (2) show that contrary to recent suggestions (including our own), Oreg and Finkel'stein treat fermionic anticommutation relations CORRECTLY (see Appendix K), but (3) suggest that their MEAN-FIELD treatment of their Coulomb gas may not be sufficiently accurat

Orbital and spin Kondo effects in a double quantum dot

Motivated by recent experiments, in which the Kondo effect has been observed for the first time in a double quantum-dot structure, we study electron transport through a system consisting of two ultrasmall, capacitively-coupled dots with large level spacing and charging energy. Due to strong interdot Coulomb correlations, the Kondo effect has two possible sources, the spin and orbital degeneracies, and it is maximized when both occur simultaneously. The large number of tunable parameters allows a range of manipulations of the Kondo physics -- in particular, the Kondo effect in each dot is sensitive to changes in the state of the other dot. For a thorough account of the system dynamics, the linear and nonlinear conductance is calculated in perturbative and non-perturbative approaches. In addition, the temperature dependence of the resonant peak heights is evaluated in the framework of a renormalization group analysis.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures; submitted to Europhys. Let

Relaxation vs decoherence: Spin and current dynamics in the anisotropic Kondo model at finite bias and magnetic field

Using a nonequilibrium renormalization group method we study the real-time evolution of spin and current in the anisotropic Kondo model (both antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic) at finite magnetic field $h_0$ and bias voltage $V$. We derive analytic expressions for all times in the weak-coupling regime $\max\{V,h_0,1/t\}\gg T_c$ ($T_c=$ strong coupling scale). We find that all observables decay both with the spin relaxation and decoherence rates $\Gamma_{1/2}$. Various $V$-dependent logarithmic, oscillatory, and power-law contributions are predicted. The low-energy cutoff of logarithmic terms is generically identified by the difference of transport decay rates. For small times $t\ll \max\{V,h_0\}^{-1}$, we obtain universal dynamics for spin and current

Kondo model in nonequilibrium: Interplay between voltage, temperature, and crossover from weak to strong coupling

We consider an open quantum system in contact with fermionic metallic reservoirs in a nonequilibrium setup. For the case of spin, orbital or potential fluctuations, we present a systematic formulation of real-time renormalization group at finite temperature, where the complex Fourier variable of an effective Liouvillian is used as flow parameter. We derive a universal set of differential equations free of divergencies written as a systematic power series in terms of the frequency-independent two-point vertex only, and solve it in different truncation orders by using a universal set of boundary conditions. We apply the formalism to the description of the weak to strong coupling crossover of the isotropic spin-1/2 nonequilibrium Kondo model at zero magnetic field. From the temperature and voltage dependence of the conductance in different energy regimes we determine various characteristic low-energy scales and compare their universal ratio to known results. For a fixed finite bias voltage larger than the Kondo temperature, we find that the temperature-dependence of the differential conductance exhibits non-monotonic behavior in the form of a peak structure. We show that the peak position and peak width scale linearly with the applied voltage over many orders of magnitude in units of the Kondo temperature. Finally, we compare our calculations with recent experiments.Comment: 48 pages, 10 figure