Quantum dots are perfect systems for observing quantum phenomena. This thesis is dedicated to the investigation of conductance through a QD, more specifically with two energy levels and both direct Coulomb interaction and Hund's spin exchange interaction. Basic theory of conductance in interacting quantum systems is presented and Kondo physics are discussed. \nWe then present the fairly recent Functional Renormalization Group approach to calculate full Green's functions of interacting systems. Our approach is based on the one by Karrasch et al. We apply it to the aforementioned QD system and recover the key characteristics of the transport properties with very little numerical effort. We present results on the conductance in the vicinity of the so-called singlet-triplet transition and compare our results both with previous numerical renormalization group results and with predictions of the perturbative renormalization group. Most features from the NRG results are reproduced qualitatively.
Quantum dots are perfect systems for observing quantum phenomena. This thesis is dedicated to the investigation of conductance through a QD, more specifically with two energy levels and both direct Coulomb interaction and Hund's spin exchange interaction. Basic theory of conductance in interacting quantum systems is presented and Kondo physics are discussed. \nWe then present the fairly recent Functional Renormalization Group approach to calculate full Green's functions of interacting systems. Our approach is based on the one by Karrasch et al. We apply it to the aforementioned QD system and recover the key characteristics of the transport properties with very little numerical effort. We present results on the conductance in the vicinity of the so-called singlet-triplet transition and compare our results both with previous numerical renormalization group results and with predictions of the perturbative renormalization group. Most features from the NRG results are reproduced qualitatively.
We present a functional renormalization group approach to the zero bias transport properties of a quantum dot with two different orbitals and in the presence of Hund's coupling. Tuning the energy separation of the orbital states, the quantum dot can be driven through a singlet-triplet transition. Our approach, based on the approach by Karrasch et al (2006 Phys. Rev. B 73 235337), which we apply to spin-dependent interactions, recovers the key characteristics of the quantum dot transport properties with very little numerical effort. We present results on the conductance in the vicinity of the transition and compare our results both with previous numerical renormalization group results and with predictions of the perturbative renormalization group.
In this thesis, we study two recently developed methods to tackle low-dimensional correlated quantum systems.\\In the first part, we benchmark the extension of the functional renormalization group to spin-systems. We apply it to the two-dimensional XXZ model and reproduce the prediction for the phase transition from planar to axial ordering at the isotropic point. The interpretation of the critical scale (where the flow of the susceptibility diverges) as the critical temperature of the system can be questioned, since it yields only good results in the Ising limit. Especially near the isotropic point, this interpretation becomes unsatisfactory as the Mermin-Wagner theorem is violated. We discuss several problems of the method and conclude that it should only be used to explore phase diagrams. In the second part, we extend previous works to two-level quantum dots in the Coulomb blockade regime with special hopping matrices in nonequilibrium, e.g., the Kondo model, to the generic form, including ferromagnetic leads, spin-orbit interactions etc. The dot and the transport observables are determined completely by the hybridization matrix, leading to one of our major results that all these models can be mapped to the Anderson impurity model with ferromagnetic leads. We investigate this model with a well-controlled real-time renormalization group approach and justify the results of a poor man's scaling analysis. By using a singular value decomposition of the tunneling matrix we can rotate the model to the anisotropic Kondo model in the high-energy regime to solve the flow equations analytically. With this, we calculate the stationary dot magnetization and the current. The minimum of the magnetization is found to be an ellipsoid as function of the magnetic field, where the stretching factor determines the distance to the scaling limit. Afterwards, we consider the special case of two external reservoirs and the system being in the scaling limit and discuss the golden-rule as well as the quantum-interference regime in detail. We can give a recipe how to extract the effective model parameters by measuring the current through the dot. Finally, the case of more than two dot-levels is discussed, where our approach becomes inapplicable.
In this paper, we review the technique of numerical renormalization group (NRG) originally introduced to study the properties of correlated systems. Besides the revision stage of this study, we apply the to NRG calculus of the conductance quantum dots considering two con gurations, depending on the disposition towards the electrodes.In the rst the dot is located between two metal electrodes and in the second the quantum dot is laterally connected to a conductor wire. Theoretical models have been introduced to describe the process of electron transport through quantum dots, as well as allowed to establish basic theoretical relationships between the conductance and the parameters of the model Hamiltonian. With the numerical diagonalization by renormalization group, we calculate the conductance through the eigenvalues and eigenvectors. We also managed to analytically calculate the conductance for the two arrangements of quantum dots considered and con rm the numerical results obtained. Finally, this study allowed physically comprise the conduction of electrons through quantum dots as well as attest the e ciency of the technique of renormalization
In a recent work [Merker, Kirchner, Mu\~noz, and Costi, Phys. Rev. B 87, 165132 (2013)], the authors compared the results of numerical renormalization group (NRG) and a perturbative approach for the dependence on temperature T and magnetic field B of the conductance through a quantum dot described by the impurity Anderson model, for small T and B. We show that the equation used to extract the dependence on B from NRG results is incorrect out of the particle-hole symmetric case. As a consequence, in the Kondo regime, the correct NRG results have a weaker dependence on B and the disagreement between both approaches increases.
We study correlated two-level quantum dots, coupled in effective one-channel fashion to metallic leads, with electron interactions including on-level and interlevel Coulomb repulsions, as well as the interorbital Hund's rule exchange favoring the spin-1 state in the relevant sector of the free dot. For arbitrary dot occupancy, the underlying phases, quantum phase transitions (QPTs), thermodynamics, single-particle dynamics, and electronic transport properties are considered, and direct comparison is made to conductance experiments on lateral quantum dots. Two distinct phases arise generically, one characterized by a normal Fermi liquid fixed point (FP) and the other by an underscreened (USC) spin-1 FP. Associated QPTs, which occur in general in a mixed valent regime of nonintegral dot charge, are found to consist of continuous lines of Kosterlitz-Thouless transitions, separated by first-order level-crossing transitions at high symmetry points. A ``Friedel-Luttinger sum rule'' is derived and, together with a deduced generalization of Luttinger's theorem to the USC phase (a singular Fermi liquid), is used to obtain a general result for the T=0 zero-bias conductance, expressed solely in terms of the dot occupancy and applicable to both phases. Relatedly, dynamical signatures of the QPT show two broad classes of behavior, corresponding to the collapse of either a Kondo resonance, or antiresonance, as the transition is approached from the Fermi liquid phase, the latter behavior being apparent in experimental differential conductance maps. The problem is studied using the numerical renormalization group method, combined with analytical arguments.
The ground-state properties of quartet quantum-dot arrays are studied using the numerical renormalization group (NRG) method with a four-site Hubbard model connected to two noninteracting leads. Specifically, we calculate the conductance and local charge in the dots from the many-body phase shifts, which can be deduced from the fixed-point eigenvalues of NRG. As a function of the on-site energy ϵd which corresponds to the gate voltage, the conductance shows alternatively wide peaks and valleys. Simultaneously, the total number of electrons Nel in the four dots shows a quantized staircase behavior due to a large Coulomb interaction U. The conductance plateaus of the unitary limit emerging for odd Nel are caused by the Kondo effect. The valleys of the conductance emerge for even Nel, and their width becomes substantially large at half-filling. It can be regarded as a kind of the Mott-Hubbard insulating behavior manifesting in a small system. These structures of the plateaus and valleys become weak for large values of the hybridization strength $\ensuremath{\Gamma}$ between the chain and leads. We also discuss the parallel conductance for the array connected to four leads.