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arXiv:1102.2741 · Physical Review B

Time-dependent and steady-state Gutzwiller approach for nonequilibrium transport in nanostructures

Nicola Lanatà, Hugo U. R. Strand

Published Sep 6, 2012• 19 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We extend the time-dependent Gutzwiller variational approach, recently introduced by Schir\`o and Fabrizio [Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 076401 (2010)], to impurity problems. Furthermore, we derive a consistent theory for the steady state, and show its equivalence with the previously introduced nonequilibrium steady-state extension of the Gutzwiller approach. The method is shown to be able to capture dissipation in the leads, so that a steady state is reached after a sufficiently long relaxation time. The time-dependent method is applied to the single-orbital Anderson impurity model at half filling, modeling a quantum dot coupled to two leads. In these exploratory calculations, the Gutzwiller projector is limited to act only on the impurity. The strengths and the limitations of this approximation are assessed via comparison with state-of-the-art continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo results. Finally, we discuss how the method can be systematically improved by extending the region of action of the Gutzwiller projector.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.86.115310

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We extend the time-dependent Gutzwiller variational approach, recently introduced by Schir`o and Fabrizio [Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 076401 (2010)], to impurity problems. Furthermore, we derive a consistent theory for the steady state, and show its equivalence with the previously introduced nonequilibrium steady-state extension of the Gutzwiller approach. The method is shown to be able to capture dissipation in the leads, so that a steady state is reached after a sufficiently long relaxation time. The time-dependent method is applied to the single-orbital Anderson impurity model at half filling, modeling a quantum dot coupled to two leads. In these exploratory calculations, the Gutzwiller projector is limited to act only on the impurity. The strengths and the limitations of this approximation are assessed via comparison with state-of-the-art continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo results. Finally, we discuss how the method can be systematically improved by extending the region of action of the Gutzwiller projector.
We have derived a variational principle that defines the nonequilibrium steady-state transport across a correlated impurity (mimicking, e.g., a quantum dot) coupled to biased leads. This variational principle has been specialized to a Gutzwiller's variational space, and applied to the study of the simple single-orbital Anderson impurity model at half filling, finding a good qualitative accord with the observed behavior in quantum dots for the expected regime of values of the bias. Beyond the purely theoretical interest in the formal definition of a variational principle in a nonequilibrium problem, the particular methods proposed have the important advantage to be simple and flexible enough to deal with more complicated systems and variational spaces.
We review the recently proposed extension of the Gutzwiller approximation, M. Schiro' and M. Fabrizio, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 076401 (2010), designed to describe the out-of-equilibrium time-evolution of a Gutzwiller-type variational wave function for correlated electrons. The method, which is strictly variational in the limit of infinite lattice-coordination, is quite general and flexible, and it is applicable to generic non-equilibrium conditions, even far beyond the linear response regime. As an application, we discuss the quench dynamics of a single-band Hubbard model at half-filling, where the method predicts a dynamical phase transition above a critical quench that resembles the sharp crossover observed by time-dependent dynamical mean field theory. We next show that one can actually define in some cases a multi-configurational wave function combination of a whole set of mutually orthogonal Gutzwiller wave functions. The Hamiltonian projected in that subspace can be exactly evaluated and is equivalent to a model of auxiliary spins coupled to non-interacting electrons, closely related to the slave-spin theories for correlated electron models. The Gutzwiller approximation turns out to be nothing but the mean-field approximation applied to that spin-fermion model, which displays, for any number of bands and integer fillings, a spontaneous Z2Z_2Z2​ symmetry breaking that can be identified as the Mott insulator-to-metal transition.
Recently, Han and Heary [Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 236808 (2007)] proposed an approach to steady-state quantum transport through mesoscopic structures, which maps the nonequilibrium problem onto a family of auxiliary quantum impurity systems subject to imaginary voltages. We employ continuous-time quantum Monte-Carlo solvers to calculate accurate imaginary time data for the auxiliary models. The spectral function is obtained from a maximum entropy analytical continuation in both Matsubara frequency and complexified voltage. To enable the analytical continuation we construct a kernel which is compatible with the analytical structure of the theory. While it remains a formidable task to extract reliable spectral functions from this unbiased procedure, particularly for large voltages, our results indicate that the method in principle yields results in agreement with those obtained by other methods.
We study the interacting, symmetrically coupled single impurity Anderson model. By employing the nonequilibrium Green's function formalism, we reach an exact relationship between the steady-state charge current flowing through the impurity (dot) and its occupation. We argue that the steady-state current-occupation relation can be used to assess the consistency of simulation techniques and identify spurious transport phenomena. We test this relation in two different model variants: First, we study the Anderson-Holstein model in the strong electron-vibration coupling limit using the polaronic quantum master equation method. We find that the current-occupation relation is violated numerically in standard calculations, with simulations bringing up incorrect transport effects. Using a numerical procedure, we resolve the problem efficiently. Second, we simulate the Anderson model with electron-electron interaction on the dot using a deterministic numerically exact time-evolution scheme. Here, we observe that the current-occupation relation is satisfied in the steady-state limit-even before results converge to the exact limit.
We develop an iterative, numerically exact approach for the treatment of nonequilibrium quantum transport and dissipation problems that avoids the real-time sign problem associated with standard Monte Carlo techniques. The method requires a well-defined decorrelation time of the nonlocal influence functional for proper convergence to the exact limit. Since finite decorrelation times may arise either from temperature or from a voltage drop at zero temperature, the approach is well suited for the description of the real-time dynamics of single-molecule devices and quantum dots driven to a steady state via interaction with two or more electron leads. We numerically investigate two nontrivial models: the evolution of the nonequilibrium population of a two-level system coupled to two electronic reservoirs, and quantum transport in the nonequilibrium Anderson model. For the latter case, two distinct formulations are described. Results are compared to those obtained by other techniques.