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arXiv:cond-mat/0604336 · Physical Review B

Multiple-impurity Anderson model for quantum dots coupled in parallel

Rok Žitko, J. Bonča

Published Jul 17, 2006• 118 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The system of several $(N)$ quantum dots coupled in parallel to the same single-mode conduction channel can be modeled as a single-channel $N$-impurity Anderson model. Using the generalized Schrieffer-Wolff transformation we show that near the particle-hole symmetric point, the effective Hamiltonian in the local moment regime is the $N$-impurity $S=1∕2$ Kondo model. The conduction-band-mediated RKKY exchange interaction between the dots is ferromagnetic and at intermediate temperatures locks the moments into a maximal spin $S=N∕2$ ground state. We provide an analytical estimate for the RKKY interaction. At low temperatures the spin is partially screened by the conduction electrons to $N∕2\ensuremath{-}1∕2$ due to the Kondo effect. By comparing accurate numerical renormalization group results for magnetic susceptibility of the $N$-impurity Anderson model to the exact Bethe ansatz results of a $S=N∕2$ SU(2) Kondo system we show that at low-temperature the quantum dots can be described by the effective $S=N∕2$ Kondo model. Moreover, the Kondo temperature is independent of the number of impurities $N$. We demonstrate the robustness of the spin $N∕2$ ground state as well as of the associated $S=N∕2$ Kondo effect by studying the stability of the system with respect to various experimentally relevant perturbations. We finally explore various quantum phase transitions driven by these perturbations.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.74.045312

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The Anderson Impurity Model is a generic model to describe systems in which one or more energy levels are coupled to an electronic host. On the energy levels the electrons are subject to a Coulomb interaction. Possible applications of this model are magnetic atoms in a metal or quantum dot systems. Already for one impurity it displays very interesting physics including the well known Kondo effect. For two and more impurities the properties of the system in the local moment regime are determined by an interplay of the Kondo effect and the coupling between the impurity spins. Due to the interplay of multiple energy scales, this model poses a serious task for any computational tool. For a single impurity the model can be very efficiently treated using Wilson"s numerical renormalization group (NRG). Since the numerical effort of NRG calculations rises exponentially with the number of impurities, generically it cannot be applied to systems with more than two impurities. The functional renormalization group (fRG) has been very successfully applied to quantum impurity problems in the past. In this work it will be used to calculate the single-particle dynamics for Anderson-like quantum impurity systems in equilibrium. A comparison to NRG in the case of a single impurity will serve as a benchmark before systems with two impurities and quantum dot systems with two and three dots will be studied. The interplay between the Kondo effect and magnetic and orbital ordering will be investigated in these systems. Although the truncation in the presented fRG scheme is motivated by second order perturbation theory, it will be shown that fRG works also in those cases where perturbation theory fails. Generally it will turn out that fRG is capable of treating a broad variety of Anderson impurity systems within the same framework, including asymmetric impurity levels and interaction between multiple impurities.

•Jan 1, 2007•1 citation
The system of several (N)(N)(N) quantum dots coupled in parallel to the same single-mode conduction channel can be modeled as a single-channel NNN-impurity Anderson model. Using the generalized Schrieffer-Wolff transformation we show that near the particle-hole symmetric point, the effective Hamiltonian in the local moment regime is the NNN-impurity S=1∕2S=1∕2S=1∕2 Kondo model. The conduction-band-mediated RKKY exchange interaction between the dots is ferromagnetic and at intermediate temperatures locks the moments into a maximal spin S=N∕2S=N∕2S=N∕2 ground state. We provide an analytical estimate for the RKKY interaction. At low temperatures the spin is partially screened by the conduction electrons to N∕2\ensuremath−1∕2N∕2\ensuremath{-}1∕2N∕2\ensuremath−1∕2 due to the Kondo effect. By comparing accurate numerical renormalization group results for magnetic susceptibility of the NNN-impurity Anderson model to the exact Bethe ansatz results of a S=N∕2S=N∕2S=N∕2 SU(2) Kondo system we show that at low-temperature the quantum dots can be described by the effective S=N∕2S=N∕2S=N∕2 Kondo model. Moreover, the Kondo temperature is independent of the number of impurities NNN. We demonstrate the robustness of the spin N∕2N∕2N∕2 ground state as well as of the associated S=N∕2S=N∕2S=N∕2 Kondo effect by studying the stability of the system with respect to various experimentally relevant perturbations. We finally explore various quantum phase transitions driven by these perturbations.
We study the low-temperature transport properties of systems of parallel quantum dots described by the NNN-impurity Anderson model. We calculate the quasiparticle scattering phase shifts, spectral functions, and correlations as a function of the gate voltage for NNN up to 5. For any NNN, the conductance at the particle-hole symmetric point is unitary. For $N\ensuremath{\ge}2$, a transition from ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic impurity spin correlations occurs at some gate voltage. For $N\ensuremath{\ge}3$, there is an additional transition due to an abrupt change in average impurity occupancy. For odd NNN, the conductance is discontinuous through both quantum phase transitions, while for even NNN only the magnetic transition affects the conductance. Similar effects should be experimentally observable in systems of quantum dots with ferromagnetic conduction-band-mediated interdot exchange interactions.
A magnetic moment in a metal or in a quantum dot is, at low temperatures, screened by the conduction electrons through the mechanism of the Kondo effect. This gives rise to spin-spin correlations between the magnetic moment and the conduction electrons, which can have a substantial spatial extension. We study this phenomenon, the so-called Kondo cloud, by means of the density matrix renormalization group method for the case of the single-impurity Anderson model. We focus on the question whether the Kondo screening length, typically assumed to be proportional to the inverse Kondo temperature, can be extracted from the spin-spin correlations. For several mechanisms -- the gate potential and a magnetic field -- that destroy the Kondo effect, we investigate the behavior of the screening cloud induced by these perturbations.
A magnetic moment in a metal or in a quantum dot is, at low temperatures, screened by the conduction electrons through the mechanism of the Kondo effect. This gives rise to spin-spin correlations between the magnetic moment and the conduction electrons, which can have a substantial spatial extension. We study this phenomenon, the so-called Kondo cloud, by means of the density matrix renormalization group method for the case of the single-impurity Anderson model. We focus on the question whether the Kondo screening length, typically assumed to be proportional to the inverse Kondo temperature, can be extracted from the spin-spin correlations. For several mechanisms---the gate potential and a magnetic field---which destroy the Kondo effect, we investigate the behavior of the screening cloud induced by these perturbations.
The spectral properties and the quantum phase transitions in parallel triple quantum dot systems are investigated using the numerical renormalization-group method. For small interdot hopping ttt, the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) exchange interaction between the dots is identified in the spectra and is consistent with that obtained by the perturbation theory. With increasing ttt, due to the competition between the RKKY exchange and the direct exchange between dots, there exist two first-order quantum phase transitions between the phases with the local spin Sdot=3∕2{S}_{\mathit{\text{dot}}}=3∕2Sdot​=3∕2, 1∕21∕21∕2, and 0 on the dots. At low temperature, the local spin Sdot=3∕2{S}_{\mathit{\text{dot}}}=3∕2Sdot​=3∕2 is partially screened to a residual spin S=1S=1S=1, while the local spin Sdot=1∕2{S}_{\mathit{\text{dot}}}=1∕2Sdot​=1∕2 is totally screened. In both local quadruplet and doublet states, the Kondo resonance accompanied with a conductance of the unitary limit 2e2∕h2{e}^{2}∕h2e2∕h is observed, while no Kondo effect is found in the local spin-singlet state.
We study triangular clusters of three spin-1/2 Kondo or Anderson impurities that are coupled to two conduction leads. In the case of Kondo impurities, the model takes the form of an antiferromagnetic Heisenberg ring with Kondo-type exchange coupling to continuum electrons. We show that this model exhibits many types of the behavior found in various simpler one- and two-impurity models, thereby enabling the study of crossovers between a number of Fermi-liquid (FL) and non-Fermi-liquid (NFL) fixed points. In particular, we explore a direct crossover between the two-impurity Kondo-model NFL fixed point and the two-channel Kondo-model NFL fixed point. We show that the concept of the two-stage Kondo effect applies even in the case when the first-stage Kondo state is of NFL type. In the case of Anderson impurities, we consider the transport properties of three coupled quantum dots. This class of models includes, as limiting cases, the familiar serial double quantum dot and triple quantum dot nanostructures. By extracting the quasiparticle scattering phase shifts, we compute the low-temperature conductance as a function of the interimpurity tunneling coupling. We point out that due to the existence of exponentially low-temperature scales, there is a parameter range where the stable ``zero-temperature'' fixed point is essentially never reached (not even in numerical renormalization group calculations). The zero-temperature conductance is then of no interest and it may only be meaningful to compute the conductance at finite temperature. This illustrates the perils of studying the conductance in the ground state and considering thermal fluctuations only as a small correction.
The Anderson Impurity Model is a generic model to describe systems in which one or more energy levels are coupled to an electronic host. On the energy levels the electrons are subject to a Coulomb interaction. Possible applications of this model are magnetic atoms in a metal or quantum dot systems. Already for one impurity it displays very interesting physics including the well known Kondo effect. For two and more impurities the properties of the system in the local moment regime are determined by an interplay of the Kondo effect and the coupling between the impurity spins. Due to the interplay of multiple energy scales, this model poses a serious task for any computational tool. For a single impurity the model can be very efficiently treated using Wilson"s numerical renormalization group (NRG). Since the numerical effort of NRG calculations rises exponentially with the number of impurities, generically it cannot be applied to systems with more than two impurities. The functional renormalization group (fRG) has been very successfully applied to quantum impurity problems in the past. In this work it will be used to calculate the single-particle dynamics for Anderson-like quantum impurity systems in equilibrium. A comparison to NRG in the case of a single impurity will serve as a benchmark before systems with two impurities and quantum dot systems with two and three dots will be studied. The interplay between the Kondo effect and magnetic and orbital ordering will be investigated in these systems. Although the truncation in the presented fRG scheme is motivated by second order perturbation theory, it will be shown that fRG works also in those cases where perturbation theory fails. Generally it will turn out that fRG is capable of treating a broad variety of Anderson impurity systems within the same framework, including asymmetric impurity levels and interaction between multiple impurities.