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Out of equilibrium transport through an Anderson impurity: probing scaling laws within the equation of motion approach

C. A. Balseiro, Gonzalo Usaj, Sánchez, María José

Published Jul 1, 2010• 17 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

We study non-equilibrium electron transport through a quantum impurity coupled to metallic leads using the equation of motion technique at finite temperature T . Assuming that the interactions are taking place solely in the impurity and focusing on the infinite Hubbard limit, we compute the out of equilibrium density of states and the differential conductance G2(T, V ) in order to test several scaling laws. We find that G2(T, V )/G2(T, 0) is a universal function of both eV/TK and T/TK, TK being the Kondo temperature. The effect of an in-plane magnetic field on the splitting of the zero bias anomaly in the differential conductance is also analyzed. For a Zeeman splitting , the computed differential conductance peak splitting depends only on /TK, and for large fields approaches the value of 2. Besides studying the traditional two leads setup, we also consider other configurations that mimic recent experiments, namely, an impurity embedded in a mesoscopic wire and the presence of a third weakly coupled lead. In these cases, a double peak structure of the Kondo resonance is clearly obtained in the differential conductance while the amplitude of the highest peak is shown to decrease as ln(eV/TK). Several features of these results are in qualitative agreement with recent experimental observations reported on quantum dots.

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We study non-equilibrium electron transport through a quantum impurity coupled to metallic leads using the equation of motion technique at finite temperature T . Assuming that the interactions are taking place solely in the impurity and focusing on the infinite Hubbard limit, we compute the out of equilibrium density of states and the differential conductance G2(T, V ) in order to test several scaling laws. We find that G2(T, V )/G2(T, 0) is a universal function of both eV/TK and T/TK, TK being the Kondo temperature. The effect of an in-plane magnetic field on the splitting of the zero bias anomaly in the differential conductance is also analyzed. For a Zeeman splitting , the computed differential conductance peak splitting depends only on /TK, and for large fields approaches the value of 2. Besides studying the traditional two leads setup, we also consider other configurations that mimic recent experiments, namely, an impurity embedded in a mesoscopic wire and the presence of a third weakly coupled lead. In these cases, a double peak structure of the Kondo resonance is clearly obtained in the differential conductance while the amplitude of the highest peak is shown to decrease as ln(eV/TK). Several features of these results are in qualitative agreement with recent experimental observations reported on quantum dots.
Correlations are a central ingredient of modern condensed matter physics. With the advent of mesoscopic physics, it became possible to study correlated systems in non-equilibrium situations, which can be reached by e.g. driving a constant current through a quantum dot. A basic question is how correlations on the one hand and a non-equilibrium current on the other hand influence each other. Here this interplay is studied for the model system of a quantum dot in the Kondo regime using the real time renormalization group (RTRG) method. This method is a functional renormalization group (RG) method allowing a non-perturbative description of correlated systems in non-equilibrium. For the Kondo quantum dot the method is generalized to the case of double vertices. The RTRG method not only provides equations for the calculation of the renormalized coupling between the quantum dot spin and the reservoir electrons, but also equations for the calculation of the non-equilibrium decoherence rate and the non-equilibrium current.The RG equations are derived to second order. This approximation is expected to be valid as long as the quantum dot does not enter the strong coupling regime, i.e. the effective coupling strength between the quantum dot spin and the electrons does not become too large. It is found that this is the case if the bias voltage applied to the dot or the temperature is much larger than the Kondo temperature.It is shown that the RG equations lead to coupling functions depending on the energy of the incident and the scattered electron. This dependence is simplified to the dependence on the average energy of the incident and the scattered electron in the weak coupling regime.A closer inspection of the RG equations for the couplings shows that they not only contain terms leading to a logarithmic increase of the coupling strength but also subleading terms which are unimportant in the weak coupling regime. The RG equations are solved analytically for the case where the subleading terms are neglected. It is found that the coupling functions develop resonances at energies associated with the chemical potentials of the reservoirs. The height of these resonances is determined by the decoherence rate. However, for bias voltages much larger than the Kondo temperature these resonances do not affect the conductance for a two terminal setup, so the conductance does not provide a measure for the decoherence rate in this case. It is found that the conductance for the two terminal setup is a universal function of voltage/Kondo temperature and temperature/Kondo temperature in the weak coupling regime. This function is calculated analytically in the limits of vanishing voltage or temperature. Furthermore, it is found that for zero temperature the decoherence rate is proportional to the non-equilibrium current flowing through the system. This supports the physical picture that a non-equilibrium current is associated with a decoherence rate, which cuts the logarithmic scaling of the coupling strength.Finally, the RG equations are solved numerically for zero temperature including the subleading corrections found before. As expected, the subleading corrections have no impact on the decoherence rate and the conductance in the weak coupling regime. On the other hand, it is found that they lead to strong deviations from the results of the analytic leading logarithmic approximation if the bias voltage approaches the Kondo temperature. Generally, it is found that the subleading corrections lead to a saturation of the decoherence rate and the conductance to some finite value. However, for the numerical solution a numerical regularization parameter has to be introduced. It turns out that the saturation value found depends on its value, so no statements on the precise value of the decoherence rate and the current can be made in this regime.
We study the single-impurity Anderson model out of equilibrium under the influence of a bias voltage ϕ and a magnetic field B . We investigate the interplay between the shift ( ) of the Kondo peak in the spin-resolved density of states (DOS) and the one ( ) of the conductance anomaly. In agreement with experiments and previous theoretical calculations we find that, while the latter displays a rather linear behavior with an almost constant slope as a function of B down to the Kondo scale, the DOS shift first features a slower increase reaching the same behavior as only for . Our auxiliary master equation approach yields highly accurate nonequilibrium results for the DOS and for the conductance all the way from within the Kondo up to the charge fluctuation regime, showing excellent agreement with a recently introduced scheme based on a combination of numerical renormalization group with time-dependent density matrix renormalization group.
Using different techniques, and Fermi-liquid relationships, we calculate the variation with the applied magnetic field (up to second order) of the zero-temperature equilibrium conductance through a quantum dot described by the impurity Anderson model. We focus on the strong-coupling limit $U\ensuremath{\gg}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$, where UUU is the Coulomb repulsion and $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$ is half the resonant-level width, and consider several values of the dot level energy Ed{E}_{d}Ed​, ranging from the Kondo regime ${\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{F}\ensuremath{-}{E}_{d}\ensuremath{\gg}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$ to the intermediate-valence regime ${\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{F}\ensuremath{-}{E}_{d}\ensuremath{\sim}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$, where ${\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{F}$ is the Fermi energy. We have mainly used the density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) and the numerical renormalization group (NRG) combined with renormalized perturbation theory (RPT). Results for the dot occupancy and magnetic susceptibility from the DMRG and NRG+RPT\mathrm{NRG}+\mathrm{RPT}NRG+RPT are compared with the corresponding Bethe ansatz results for $U\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$, showing an excellent agreement once Ed{E}_{d}Ed​ is renormalized by a constant Haldane shift. For $U<3\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$ a simple perturbative approach in UUU agrees very well with the other methods. The conductance decreases with the applied magnetic field for dot occupancies ${n}_{d}\ensuremath{\sim}1$ and increases for ${n}_{d}\ensuremath{\sim}0.5$ or ${n}_{d}\ensuremath{\sim}1.5$ regardless of the value of UUU. We also relate the energy scale for the magnetic-field dependence of the conductance with the width of the low-energy peak in the spectral density of the dot.
Single-particle dynamics of the Anderson impurity model in the presence of a magnetic field H are considered, using a recently developed local moment approach that encompasses all energy scales, field and interaction strengths. For strong coupling in particular, the Kondo scaling regime is recovered. Here the frequency (ω/ω K ) and field ( H /ω K ) dependence of the resultant universal scaling spectrum is obtained in large part analytically, and the field-induced destruction of the Kondo resonance investigated. The scaling spectrum is found to exhibit the slow logarithmic tails recently shown to dominate the zero-field scaling spectrum. At the opposite extreme of the Fermi level, it gives asymptotically exact agreement with results for statics known from the Bethe ansatz. Good agreement is also found with the frequency and field-dependence of recent numerical renormalization group calculations. Differential conductance experiments on quantum dots in the presence of a magnetic field are likewise considered, and appear to be well accounted for by the theory. Some new exact results for the problem are also established.
We develop a nonperturbative dynamical theory (NDT) to calculate the retarded Green's function under nonequilibrium conditions. The NDT is particularly useful for treating nonequilibrium transport problems in systems with strong correlation. We apply our NDT to the well-known single-impurity Anderson model at equilibrium to determine its feasibility. We then apply it to a nonequilibrium transport problem in a system with Kondo coupling. An Anderson model with two metallic reservoirs is studied to understand the phenomenon of Kondo-peak splitting in a single-electron transistor of mesoscopic size. We calculate the nonequilibrium retarded Green's function by using the NDT and analyze it in the atomic limit, where the novel coherent phenomenon manifested only under nonequilibrium conditions can be described in an analytical manner. We finally construct a self-consistent loop to calculate the retarded Green's function and present the results for spectral density and differential conductance obtained by the self-consistent method. Our results explain all the features of Kondo-peak splitting observed in experiments. One remarkable conclusion is that Kondo-peak splitting is not the splitting of a conventional Kondo peak, but the splitting of a novel coherent peak created under nonequilibrium steady-state conditions.
We study equilibrium and nonequilibrium properties of the single-impurity Anderson model with a power-law pseudogap in the density of states. In equilibrium, the model is known to display a quantum phase transition from a generalized Kondo to a local moment phase. In the present work, we focus on the extension of these phases beyond equilibrium, i.e., under the influence of a bias voltage. Within the auxiliary master equation approach combined with a scheme based on matrix product states (MPS) we are able to directly address the current-carrying steady state. Starting with the equilibrium situation, we first corroborate our results by comparing to a direct numerical evaluation of ground-state spectral properties of the system by MPS. Here, a scheme to locate the phase boundary by extrapolating the power-law exponent of the self energy produces a very good agreement with previous results obtained by the numerical renormalization group. Our nonequilibrium study as a function of the applied bias voltage is then carried out for two points on either side of the phase boundary. In the Kondo regime the resonance in the spectral function is split as a function of the increasing bias voltage. The local moment regime, instead, displays a dip in the spectrum near the position of the chemical potentials. Similar features are observed in the corresponding self energies. The Kondo split peaks approximately obey a power-law behavior as a function of frequency whose exponents depend only slightly on voltage. Finally, the differential conductance in the Kondo regime shows a peculiar maximum at finite voltages, whose height, however, is below the accuracy level.