Universal transport signatures in two-electron molecular quantum dots: gate-tunable Hund's rule, underscreened Kondo effect and quantum phase transitions

Abstract

We review here some universal aspects of the physics of two-electron molecular transistors in the absence of strong spin-orbit effects. Several recent quantum dots experiments have shown that an electrostatic backgate could be used to control the energy dispersion of magnetic levels. We discuss how the generically asymmetric coupling of the metallic contacts to two different molecular orbitals can indeed lead to a gate-tunable Hund's rule in the presence of singlet and triplet states in the quantum dot. For gate voltages such that the singlet constitutes the (non-magnetic) ground state, one generally observes a suppression of low voltage transport, which can yet be restored in the form of enhanced cotunneling features at finite bias. More interestingly, when the gate voltage is controlled to obtain the triplet configuration, spin S=1 Kondo anomalies appear at zero-bias, with non-Fermi liquid features related to the underscreening of a spin larger than 1/2. Finally, the small bare singlet-triplet splitting in our device allows to fine-tune with the gate between these two magnetic configurations, leading to an unscreening quantum phase transition. This transition occurs between the non-magnetic singlet phase, where a two-stage Kondo effect occurs, and the triplet phase, where the partially compensated (underscreened) moment is akin to a magnetically "ordered" state. These observations are put theoretically into a consistent global picture by using new Numerical Renormalization Group simulations, taylored to capture sharp finie-voltage cotunneling features within the Coulomb diamonds, together with complementary out-of-equilibrium diagrammatic calculations on the two-orbital Anderson model. This work should shed further light on the complicated puzzle still raised by multi-orbital extensions of the classic Kondo problem.