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arXiv:2103.12500 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Overscreened Kondo problem with large spin and large number of orbital channels: Two distinct semiclassical limits in quantum transport observables

D. B. Karki, Mikhail N. Kiselev

Published May 14, 2021• 1 citation
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Abstract

We investigate quantum transport through the Kondo impurity assuming both a large number of orbital channels $\mathcal{K}\ensuremath{\gg}1$ for the itinerant electrons and a semiclassical spin $\mathcal{S}\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\gg}\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}1$ for the impurity. The non-Fermi-liquid regime of the Kondo problem is achieved in the overscreened sector $\mathcal{K}>2\mathcal{S}$. We show that there exist two distinct semiclassical regimes for the quantum transport through impurity: (i) $\mathcal{K}\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\gg}\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\mathcal{S}\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\gg}\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}1$, differential conductance vanishes, and (ii) $\mathcal{S}/\mathcal{K}=\mathcal{C}$ with $0<\mathcal{C}<1/2$, differential conductance reaches some nonvanishing fraction of its unitary value. Using the conformal field theory approach we analyze the behavior of the quantum transport observables and residual entropy in both semiclassical regimes. We show that the semiclassical limit (ii) preserves the key features of resonance scattering and the most essential fingerprints of the non-Fermi-liquid behavior. We discuss possible realization of two semiclassical regimes in semiconductor quantum transport experiments.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.103.l201402

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We investigate quantum transport through the Kondo impurity assuming both a large number of orbital channels K\ensuremath≫1\mathcal{K}\ensuremath{\gg}1K\ensuremath≫1 for the itinerant electrons and a semiclassical spin S\ensuremath≫1\mathcal{S}\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\gg}\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}1S\ensuremath≫1 for the impurity. The non-Fermi-liquid regime of the Kondo problem is achieved in the overscreened sector K>2S\mathcal{K}>2\mathcal{S}K>2S. We show that there exist two distinct semiclassical regimes for the quantum transport through impurity: (i) K\ensuremath≫S\ensuremath≫1\mathcal{K}\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\gg}\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\mathcal{S}\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\gg}\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}1K\ensuremath≫S\ensuremath≫1, differential conductance vanishes, and (ii) S/K=C\mathcal{S}/\mathcal{K}=\mathcal{C}S/K=C with 0<C<1/20<\mathcal{C}<1/20<C<1/2, differential conductance reaches some nonvanishing fraction of its unitary value. Using the conformal field theory approach we analyze the behavior of the quantum transport observables and residual entropy in both semiclassical regimes. We show that the semiclassical limit (ii) preserves the key features of resonance scattering and the most essential fingerprints of the non-Fermi-liquid behavior. We discuss possible realization of two semiclassical regimes in semiconductor quantum transport experiments.
We develop a conformal field theory approach for investigation of the quantum charge, heat, and thermoelectric transport through a quantum impurity fine-tuned to a non-Fermi liquid regime. The non-Fermi-liquid operational mode is associated with the overscreened spin Kondo effect and controlled by the number of orbital channels. The universal low-temperature scaling and critical exponents for Seebeck and Peltier coefficients are investigated for the multichannel geometry. We discuss the universality of Lorenz ratio and power factor beyond the Fermi-liquid paradigm. Different methods of verifying our findings based on the recent experiments are proposed.
The multichannel Kondo model with SU(N)\mathrm{SU}(N)SU(N) spin symmetry and SU(K)\mathrm{SU}(K)SU(K) channel symmetry is considered. The impurity spin is chosen to transform as an antisymmetric representation of SU(N),\mathrm{SU}(N),SU(N), corresponding to a fixed number of Abrikosov fermions ${\ensuremath{\sum}}_{\ensuremath{\alpha}}{f}_{\ensuremath{\alpha}}^{\ifmmode\dagger\else\textdagger\fi{}}{f}_{\ensuremath{\alpha}}=Q.$ For more than one channel (K>1),(K>1),(K>1), and all values of NNN and Q,Q,Q, the model displays non-Fermi behavior associated with the overscreening of the impurity spin. Universal low-temperature thermodynamic and transport properties of this non-Fermi-liquid state are computed using conformal field theory methods. A large-NNN limit of the model is then considered, in which $K/N\ensuremath{\equiv}\ensuremath{\gamma}$ and $Q/N\ensuremath{\equiv}{q}_{0}$ are held fixed. Spectral densities satisfy coupled integral equations in this limit, corresponding to a (time-dependent) saddle point. A low-frequency, low-temperature analysis of these equations reveals universal scaling properties in the variable $\ensuremath{\omega}/T,$ in agreement with conformal invariance. The universal scaling form is obtained analytically and used to compute the low-temperature universal properties of the model in the large-NNN limit, such as the T=0T=0T=0 residual entropy and residual resistivity, and the critical exponents associated with the specific heat and susceptibility. The connections with the ``noncrossing approximation'' and the previous work of Cox and Ruckenstein are discussed.
We consider the single-channel Kondo problem with the Kondo coupling between a spin SSS impurity and conduction electrons with spin jjj. These problems arise as multicritical points in the parameter spaces of two-and higher-level tunneling systems and some impurity models of heavy fermion compounds. In contrast to the previous Bethe-ansatz conjectures, it turns out that the dynamics of the spin sector is the same as that of a spin-SSS impurity coupled to k(j)k(j)k(j) channels of spin-\textonehalf{} electrons with k(j)=2j(j+1)(2j+1)3k(j)=2\frac{j(j+1)(2j+1)}{3}k(j)=23j(j+1)(2j+1)​. As a result, for 2S<k(j)2S<k(j)2S<k(j), the system shows non-Fermi-liquid behavior with the same exponents for the thermodynamic quantities as those of the k(j)k(j)k(j)-channel Kondo problem. However, both the finite-size spectrum and the operator content are different due to the presence of the other sectors and can be obtained by conformal field theory techniques.
By properly generalizing Nozie`res' Fermi liquid theory, we construct an Hamiltonian approach to the scattering of conduction electrons off a spin-1/2 impurity in the ovescreneed Kondo regime, as T -> 0. We derive the S-matrix at the interacting fixed point, and the corresponding phase shifts, together with leading energy corrections to the unitary limit. We apply our results to obtain the low-temperature dependence of the 2-channel Kondo conductance, and we relate it to possible transport experiments in a Quantum Dot
The non-Fermi-liquid fixed point of the overscreened Kondo problem is studied in the limit of a large number of conduction electron channels, k\ensuremath{\gg}1, using perturbation theory in 1/k. By expanding the beta function and self-energy to sub-leading-order in 1/k, we examine the scaling, thermodynamics, and dynamic response functions in detail. Our results compliment and extend previous work based on conformal field theory. We present the dynamical spin susceptibility for the first time and show that the impurity spin is marginally quenched, with an inelastic linewidth of order T.
We study the coherent properties of fully screened and overscreened Kondo effects based on the Nozieres local Fermi-liquid theory and Affleck-Ludwig boundary conformal-field-theory approach, respectively. Coherent transports through an SU(N)\mathrm{SU}(N)SU(N) generalization of fully screened and the multi-K\mathcal{K}K-channel overscreened Kondo impurities at and beyond the particle-hole (PH) symmetric point are thoroughly investigated. We report distinctive Fermi-liquid coefficients characterizing the finite temperature correction to the transmission phase shift and normalized visibility in fully screened Kondo regime, which can be measured with the existing experimental setups. Our work equally uncovers the significance of temperature correction to the transmission phase shift and visibility in non-Fermi-liquid regime associated with the PH asymmetric overscreened Kondo effects with an arbitrary number of conduction channels K\mathcal{K}K. We propose viable roots of verifying our predictions in connection to the recent experiments, in particular with the experiments studying highly symmetric forms of fully screened Kondo effects and two-channel overscreened Kondo effects realized in quantum dot nanostructures.