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arXiv:cond-mat/0410001 · Physical Review Letters

Anomalous Conductance of a Spin-1 Quantum Dot

Anna Posazhennikova, Piers Coleman

Published Jan 26, 2005• 49 citations
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Abstract

We interpret the recent observation of a zero-bias anomaly in spin-1 quantum dots in terms of an underscreened Kondo effect. Although spin-1 quantum dots are expected to undergo a two-stage quenching effect, in practice the log-normal distribution of Kondo temperatures leads to a broad temperature region dominated by underscreened Kondo physics. General arguments, based on the asymptotic decoupling between the partially screened moment and the leads, predict a singular temperature and voltage dependence of the conductance G and differential conductance g, resulting in dg/dT approximately 1/T and dG/dV approximately 1/V. Using a Schwinger boson approach, we show how these qualitative expectations are borne out in a detailed many body calculation.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.94.036802

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We interpret the recent observation of a zero-bias anomaly in spin-1 quantum dots in terms of an underscreened Kondo effect. Although spin-1 quantum dots are expected to undergo a two-stage quenching effect, in practice the log-normal distribution of Kondo temperatures leads to a broad temperature region dominated by underscreened Kondo physics. General arguments, based on the asymptotic decoupling between the partially screened moment and the leads, predict a singular temperature and voltage dependence of the conductance G and differential conductance g, resulting in dg/dT approximately 1/T and dG/dV approximately 1/V. Using a Schwinger boson approach, we show how these qualitative expectations are borne out in a detailed many body calculation.
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Using Wilson's numerical renormalization group (NRG) technique we compute zero-bias conductance and various correlation functions of a double quantum dot (DQD) system. We present different regimes within a phase diagram of the DQD system. By introducing a negative Hubbard U on one of the quantum dots, we simulate the effect of electron-phonon coupling and explore the properties of the coexisting spin and charge Kondo state. In a triple quantum dot (TQD) system a multi-stage Kondo effect appears where localized moments on quantum dots are screened successively at exponentially distinct Kondo temperatures.
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=0T=0T=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 out-of-equilibrium transport properties of a double quantum dot system in the Kondo regime are studied theoretically by means of a two-impurity Anderson Hamiltonian with interimpurity hopping. The Hamiltonian is solved by means of a nonequilibrium generalization of the slave-boson mean-field theory. It is demonstrated that measurements of the differential conductance dI/dV, for appropriate values of voltages and tunneling couplings, can give a direct observation of the coherent superposition between the many-body Kondo states of each dot. For large voltages and arbitrarily large interdot tunneling, there is a critical voltage above which the physical behavior of the system again resembles that of two decoupled quantum dots.