No Arabic abstract
We calculate the nonlinear cotunneling conductance through a quantum dot with 3 electrons occupying the three highest lying energy levels. Starting from a 3-orbital Anderson model, we apply a generalized Schrieffer-Wolff transformation to derive an effective Kondo model for the system. Within this model we calculate the nonequilibrium occupation numbers and the corresponding cotunneling current to leading order in the exchange couplings. We identify the inelastic cotunneling thresholds and their splittings with applied magnetic field, and make a qualitative comparison to recent experimental data on carbon nanotube and InAs quantum-wire quantum dots. Further predictions of the model like cascade resonances and a magnetic-field dependence of the orbital level splitting are not yet observed but within reach of recent experimental work on carbon nanotube and InAs nanowire quantum dots.
Nonequilibrium properties of correlated quantum matter are being intensively investigated because of the rich interplay between external driving and the many-body correlations. Of particular interest is the nonequilibrium behavior near a quantum critical point (QCP), where the system is delicately balanced between different ground states. We present both an analytical calculation of the nonequilibrium steady-state current in a critical system and experimental results to which the theory is compared. The system is a quantum dot coupled to resistive leads: a spinless resonant level interacting with an ohmic dissipative environment. A two channel Kondo-like QCP occurs when the level is on resonance and symmetrically coupled to the leads, conditions achieved by fine-tuning using electrostatic gates. We calculate and measure the nonlinear current as a function of bias ($I$-$V$ curve) at the critical values of the gate voltages corresponding to the QCP. The quantitative agreement between the experimental data and the theory, with no fitting parameter, is excellent. As our system is fully accessible to both theory and experiment, it provides an ideal setting for addressing nonequilibrium phenomena in correlated quantum matter.
We report transport measurements on a semiconductor quantum dot with a small number of confined electrons. In the Coulomb blockade regime, conduction is dominated by cotunneling processes. These can be either elastic or inelastic, depending on whether they leave the dot in its ground state or drive it into an excited state, respectively. We are able to discriminate between these two contributions and show that inelastic events can occur only if the applied bias exceeds the lowest excitation energy. Implications to energy-level spectroscopy are discussed.
We study the electronic current through a quantum dot coupled to two superconducting leads which is driven by either a voltage $V$ or temperature $Delta T$ bias. Finite biases beyond the linear response regime are considered. The local two-particle interaction $U$ on the dot is treated using an approximation scheme within the functional renormalization group approach set up in Keldysh-Nambu-space with $U$ being the small parameter. For $V>0$ we compare our renormalization group enhanced results for the dc-component of the current to earlier weak coupling approaches such as the Hartree-Fock approximation and second order perturbation theory in $U$. We show that in parameter regimes in which finite bias driven multiple Andreev reflections prevail small $|U|$ approaches become unreliable for interactions of appreciable strength. In the complementary regime the convergence of the current with respect to numerical parameters becomes an issue - but can eventually be achieved - and interaction effects turn out to be smaller then expected based on earlier results. For $Delta T>0$ we find a surprising increase of the current as a function of the superconducting phase difference in the regime which at $T=0$ becomes the $pi$ (doublet) phase.
We investigate the effects of inelastic cotunneling on the electronic transport properties of gold nanoparticle multilayers and thick films at low applied bias, inside the Coulomb blockade regime. We find that the zero-bias conductance, $g_0(T)$, in all systems exhibits Efros-Shklovskii-type variable range hopping transport. The resulting typical hopping distance, corresponding to the number of tunnel junctions participating in cotunneling events, is shown to be directly related to the power law exponent in the measured current-voltage characteristics. We discuss the implications of these findings in light of models on cotunneling and hopping transport in mesoscopic, granular conductors.
We employ the functional renormalization group to study the effects of phonon-assisted tunneling on the nonequilibrium steady-state transport through a single level molecular quantum dot coupled to electronic leads. Within the framework of the spinless Anderson-Holstein model, we focus on small to intermediate electron-phonon couplings, and we explore the evolution from the adiabatic to the antiadiabatic limit and also from the low-temperature non-perturbative regime to the high temperature perturbative one. We identify the phononic signatures in the bias-voltage dependence of the electrical current and the differential conductance. Considering a temperature gradient between the electronic leads, we further investigate the interplay between the transport of charge and heat. Within the linear response regime, we compare the temperature dependence of various thermoelectric coefficients to our earlier results obtained within the numerical renormalization group [Phys.~Rev.~B {bf 96}, 195156 (2017)]. Beyond the linear response regime, in the context of thermoelectric generators, we discuss the influence of molecular vibrations on the output power and the efficiency. We find that the molecular energy dissipation, which is inevitable in the presence of phonons, is significantly suppressed in the antiadiabatic limit resulting in the enhancement of the thermoelectric efficiency.