arXiv subjects

Bernhard Wunsch

Publications and source records attributed to Bernhard Wunsch.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2020

Nagaoka ferromagnetism observed in a quantum dot plaquette

Engineered, highly-controllable quantum systems hold promise as simulators of emergent physics beyond the capabilities of classical computers. An important problem in many-body physics is itinerant magnetism, which originates purely from long-range interactions of free electrons and whose existence in real systems has been subject to debate for decades. Here we use a quantum simulator consisting of a four-site square plaquette of quantum dots to demonstrate Nagaoka ferromagnetism. This form of itinerant magnetism has been rigorously studied theoretically but has remained unattainable in experiment. We load the plaquette with three electrons and demonstrate the predicted emergence of spontaneous ferromagnetic correlations through pairwise measurements of spin. We find the ferromagnetic ground state is remarkably robust to engineered disorder in the on-site potentials and can induce a transition to the low-spin state by changing the plaquette topology to an open chain. This demonstration of Nagaoka ferromagnetism highlights that quantum simulators can be used to study physical phenomena that have not yet been observed in any system before. The work also constitutes an important step towards large-scale quantum dot simulators of correlated electron systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Few-electron physics in a nanotube quantum dot with spin-orbit coupling

We study the few-electron eigenspectrum of a nanotube quantum dot with spin-orbit coupling. The two-electron phase diagram as a function of the length of the dot and the applied parallel magnetic field shows clear signatures of both spin-orbit coupling and electron-electron interaction. Below a certain critical length, ground state transitions are correctly predicted by a single-particle picture and are mainly independent of the length of the dot despite the presence of strong correlations. However, for longer quantum dots the critical magnetic field strongly decreases with increasing length, which is a pure interaction effect. In fact, the new ground state is spin- and valley-polarized, which implies a strong occupation of higher longitudinal modes.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Pseudo-diffusive magnetotransport in graphene

Transport properties through wide and short ballistic graphene junctions are studied in the presence of arbitrary dopings and magnetic fields. No dependence on the magnetic field is observed at the Dirac point for any current cumulant, just as in a classical diffusive system, both in normal-graphene-normal and normal-graphene-superconductor junctions. This pseudo-diffusive regime is however extremely fragile respect to doping at finite fields. We identify the crossovers to a field-suppressed and a normal ballistic transport regime in the magnetic field - doping parameter space, and provide a physical interpretation of the phase diagram. Remarkably, pseudo-diffusive transport is recovered away from the Dirac point in resonance with Landau levels at high magnetic fields.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2005

Probing level renormalization by sequential transport through double quantum dots

We study electron transport through double quantum dots in series. The tunnel coupling of the discrete dot levels to external leads causes a shift of their energy. This energy renormalization affects the transport characteristics even in the limit of weak dot-lead coupling, when sequential transport dominates. We propose an experimental setup which reveals the renormalization effects in either the current-voltage characteristics or in the stability diagram.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2004

Isospin Blockade in Transport through Vertical Double Quantum Dots

We study the spectrum and the transport properties of two identical, vertically coupled quantum dots in a perpendicular magnetic field. We find correlation-induced energy crossings in a magnetic field sweep between states differing only in the vertical degree of freedom. Considering the influence of a slight asymmetry between the dots caused by the applied source-drain voltage in vertical transport experiments these crossings convert to anticrossings accompanied by the build-up of charge polarization which is tunable by the perpendicular magnetic field. The polarization strongly affects the vertical transport through the double quantum dot and is manifest in an isospin blockade and the appearance of negative differential conductances in the magnetic field range where the charge localization occurs.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2004

Charge-localization and isospin-blockade in vertical double quantum dots

Charge localization seems unlikely to occur in two vertically coupled symmetric quantum dots even if a small bias voltage breaks the exact isospin-symmetry of the system. However for a three-electron double quantum dot we find a strong localization of charges at certain vertically applied magnetic fields. The charge localization is directly connected to new ground state transitions between eigenstates differing only in parity. The transitions are driven by magnetic field dependent Coulomb correlations between the electrons and give rise to strong isospin blockade signatures in transport through the double dot system.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2003

Persistent current in a ring coupled to an external fermionic reservoir

We study the energy spectrum and the persistent current in an ideal one-dimensional mesoscopic ring coupled to a fermionic reservoir. We find that the tunnel coupling in general leads to the suppression of the persistent current. However, with increasing coupling, the effective level structure of the ring coupled to the reservoir changes and quasistates with a sharp eigenenergy develop. Depending on the number of ring states coupled to the reservoir this results in a nonzero persistent current even at very large tunneling between the ring and the reservoir.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2003

Quasistates in a ring coupled to a reservoir and their relation to the Dicke effect

We study the energy spectrum and the persistent current in an ideal one-dimensional mesoscopic ring coupled to an external fermionic reservoir. The contact between ring and reservoir is described by a tunneling operator, which causes an indirect coupling between different ring states via states in the reservoir. For strong coupling to the reservoir new quasistates with sharp eigenenergies develop inside the ring. The formation of long-living states at strong tunnel coupling to the reservoir is analogous to the Dicke effect in optics, that was recently investigated in context of resonant scattering and resonant tunneling in solid state systems. Our model reproduces the results obtained in previous work based on the scattering matrix approach and furthermore it describes a new stable energy spectrum in the limit of strong coupling.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗