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Herbert Schoeller

Publications and source records attributed to Herbert Schoeller.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

Real-time renormalization group and charge fluctuations in quantum dots

We develop a perturbative renormalization-group method in real time to describe nonequilibrium properties of discrete quantum systems coupled linearly to an environment. We include energy broadening and dissipation and develop a cutoff-independent formalism. We present quantitatively reliable results for the nonlinear conductance in the mixed-valence and empty-orbital regime of the nonequilibrium Anderson impurity model with finite on-site Coulomb repulsion.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Renormalization group study of the 1d polaron problem

We investigate the one-dimensional polaron problem and calculate the ground state energy and the effective mass. We use a real-time renormalization group method and compare our results with first and second order perturbation theory, with Feynman's variational principle and with the method of Lee, Low and Pines.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

An introduction to real-time renormalization group

This article presents a tutorial introduction to a recently developed real-time renormalization group method. It describes nonequilibrium properties of discrete quantum systems coupled linearly to an environment. We illustrate the technique by a simple and exactly solvable model: A quantum dot consisting of a single non-degenerate level coupled to two reservoirs. The article is intended for advanced students. Besides elementary quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics, it requires only knowledge of second quantization and Wick's theorem.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Bosonization for Beginners --- Refermionization for Experts

This tutorial gives an elementary and self-contained review of abelian bosonization in 1 dimension in a system of finite size $L$, following and simplifying Haldane's constructive approach. As a non-trivial application, we rigorously resolve (following Furusaki) a recent controversy regarding the tunneling density of states, $ρ_{dos} (ω)$, at the site of an impurity in a Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid: we use finite-size refermionization to show exactly that for g=1/2 its asymptotic low-energy behavior is $ρ_{dos}(ω) \sim ω$. This agrees with the results of Fabrizio & Gogolin and of Furusaki, but not with those of Oreg and Finkel'stein (probably because we capture effects not included in their mean-field treatment of the Coulomb gas that they obtained by an exact mapping; their treatment of anti-commutation relations in this mapping is correct, however, contrary to recent suggestions in the literature). --- The tutorial is addressed to readers unfamiliar with bosonization, or for those interested in seeing ``all the details'' explicitly; it requires knowledge of second quantization only, not of field theory. At the same time, we hope that experts too might find useful our explicit treatment of certain subtleties -- these include the proper treatment of the so-called Klein factors that act as fermion-number ladder operators (and also ensure the anti-commutation of different species of fermion fields), the retention of terms of order 1/L, and a novel, rigorous formulation of finite-size refermionization of both $e^{-i Φ(x)}$ and the boson field $Φ(x)$ itself.

cond-mat.str-el↗

Strong Tunneling in Double-Island Structures

We study the electron transport through a system of two low-capacitance metal islands connected in series between two electrodes. The work is motivated in part by experiments on semiconducting double-dots, which show intriguing effects arising from coherent tunneling of electrons and mixing of the single-electron states across tunneling barriers. In this article, we show how coherent tunneling affects metallic systems and leads to a mixing of the macroscopic charge states across the barriers. We apply a recently formulated RG approach to examine the linear response of the system with high tunnel conductances (up to 8e^2/h). In addition we calculate the (second order) cotunneling contributions to the non-linear conductance. Our main results are that the peaks in the linear and nonlinear conductance as a function of the gate voltage are reduced and broadened in an asymmetric way, as well as shifted in their positions. In the limit where the two islands are coupled weakly to the electrodes, we compare to theoretical results obtained by Golden and Halperin and Matveev et al. In the opposite case when the two islands are coupled more strongly to the leads than to each other, the peaks are found to shift, in qualitative agreement with the recent prediction of Andrei et al. for a similar double-dot system which exhibits a phase transition.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Strong Tunneling in the Single-Electron Box

We study strong tunneling (i.e. transmission $h/e^2R_T \gg 1$) in the single-electron box with many transverse modes at zero temperature. We develop a new renormalization group method which includes all charge states and requires no initial or final energy cutoff. We determine the ground-state energy, the average charge and the renormalized charging energy. The covered range for the coupling constant and the gate voltage is much increased in comparison to recent perturbative approaches, poor man scaling methods and Quantum Monte Carlo simulations. We reach the regime where Coulomb blockade become practically unobservable.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Observing the Berry phase in diffusive conductors: Necessary conditions for adiabaticity

In a recent preprint (cond-mat/9803170), van~Langen, Knops, Paasschens and Beenakker attempt to re-analyze the proposal of Loss, Schoeller and Goldbart (LSG) [Phys. Rev. B~48, 15218 (1993)] concerning Berry phase effects in the magnetoconductance of diffusive systems. Van Langen et al. claim that the adiabatic approximation for the Cooperon previously derived by LSG is not valid in the adiabatic regime identified by LSG. It is shown that the claim of van~Langen et al. is not correct, and that, on the contrary, the magnetoconductance does exhibit the Berry phase effect within the LSG regime of adiabaticity. The conclusion reached by van~Langen et al. is based on a misinterpretation of field-induced dephasing effects, which can mask the Berry phase (and any other phase coherent phenomena) for certain parameter values.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Cotunneling and renormalization effects for the single-electron transistor

We study electron transport through a small metallic island in the perturbative regime. Using a diagrammatic real-time technique, we calculate the occupation of the island as well as the conductance through the transistor at arbitrary temperature and bias voltage in forth order in the tunneling matrix elements, a process referred to as cotunneling. Our formulation does not require the introduction of a cutoff. At resonance we find significant modifications of previous theories and quantitative agreement with recent experiments. We determine the renormalization of the system parameters and extract the arguments of the leading logarithmic terms (which can not be derived from usual renormalization group analysis). Furthermore, we perform the low- and high-temperature limits. In the former, we find a behavior characteristic for the multichannel Kondo model.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Cotunneling at resonance for the single-electron transistor

We study electron transport through a small metallic island in the perturbative regime. Using a recently developed diagrammatic technique, we calculate the occupation of the island as well as the conductance through the transistor in forth order in the tunneling matrix elements, a process referred to as cotunneling. Our formulation does not require the introduction of a cut-off. At resonance we find significant modifications of previous theories and good agreement with recent experiments.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Strong Electron Tunneling through Mesoscopic Metallic Grains

We describe electron transport through small metallic grains with Coulomb blockade effects beyond the perturbative regime. For this purpose we study the real-time evolution of the reduced density matrix of the system. In the first part of the paper we present a diagrammatic expansion for not too high junction conductance, $h/4π^2e^2 R_t \lesssim 1$, in a basis of charge states. Quantum fluctuations renormalize system parameters and lead to finite lifetime broadening in the gate-voltage dependent differential conductance. We derive analytic results for the spectral density and the conductance in the limit where only two charge states play a role. In the second part of the paper we consider junctions with large conductance, $h/4e^2 R_t \gtrsim 1$. In this case contributions from all charge states, which broaden and overlap, become important. We analyze the problem in a quasiclassical approximation. The two complementary approaches cover the essential features of electron tunneling for all parameters.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Aharonov-Bohm-Type Oscillations of Thermopower in a Quantum Dot Ring Geometry

We investigate Aharonov-Bohm-type oscillations of the thermopower of a quantum dot embedded in a ring for the case when the interaction between electrons can be neglected. The thermopower is shown to be strongly flux dependent, and typically the amplitude of oscillations exceeds the background value. It is also shown to be essentially dependent on the phase of the scattering matrix which is determined by the experimental geometry and is not known in the given experiment. Two procedures to compare theory and experiment are proposed.

cond-mat↗

RKKY interaction and Kondo screening cloud for correlated electrons

The RKKY law and the Kondo screening cloud around a magnetic impurity are investigated for correlated electrons in 1D (Luttinger liquid). We find slow algebraic distance dependences, with a crossover between both types of behavior. Monte Carlo simulations have been developed to study this crossover. In the strong coupling regime, the Knight shift is shown to increase with distance due to correlations.

cond-mat↗

Resonant tunneling through ultrasmall quantum dots: zero-bias anomalies, magnetic field dependence, and boson-assisted transport

We study resonant tunneling through a single-level quantum dot in the presence of strong Coulomb repulsion beyond the perturbative regime. The level is either spin-degenerate or can be split by a magnetic field. We, furthermore, discuss the influence of a bosonic environment. Using a real-time diagrammatic formulation we calculate transition rates, the spectral density and the nonlinear $I-V$ characteristic. The spectral density shows a multiplet of Kondo peaks split by the transport voltage and the boson frequencies, and shifted by the magnetic field. This leads to zero-bias anomalies in the differential conductance, which agree well with recent experimental results for the electron transport through single-charge traps. Furthermore, we predict that the sign of the zero-bias anomaly depends on the level position relative to the Fermi level of the leads.

cond-mat↗

Aharonov-Bohm oscillations and resonant tunneling in strongly correlated quantum dots

We investigate Aharonov-Bohm oscillations of the current through a strongly correlated quantum dot embedded in an arbitrary scattering geometry. Resonant-tunneling processes lead to a flux-dependent renormalization of the dot level. As a consequence we obtain a fine structure of the current oscillations which is controlled by quantum fluctuations. Strong Coulomb repulsion leads to a continuous bias voltage dependent phase shift and, in the nonlinear response regime, destroys the symmetry of the differential conductance under a sign change of the external flux.

cond-mat↗

Zero-bias anomalies and boson-assisted tunneling through quantum dots

We study resonant tunneling through a quantum dot with one degenerate level in the presence of a strong Coulomb repulsion and a bosonic environment. Using a real-time approach we calculate the spectral density and the nonlinear current within a conserving approximation. The spectral density shows a multiplet of Kondo peaks split by the transport voltage and boson frequencies. As a consequence we find a zero-bias anomaly in the differential conductance which can show a local maximum or minimum depending on the level position. The results are compared with recent experiments.

cond-mat↗

Resonant Tunneling and Coulomb Oscillations

The influence of quantum fluctuations on electron transport through small metallic islands with Coulomb blockade effects is studied beyond the perturbative regime. In tunnel junctions with low resistance higher order coherent processes and ``inelastic resonant tunneling'' become important. We present a path integral real-time description, which allows a systematic diagrammatic classification of these processes. Quantum fluctuations renormalize system parameters and lead to finite lifetime broadening. Both effects are observable in the gate voltage dependence of the nonlinear conductance. The finite bias voltage introduces an energy scale up to which quantum fluctuations are probed. It can be larger than the temperature, which makes quantum effects experimentally observable above thermal fluctuations.

cond-mat↗

Resonant Tunneling and Charging Effects, a Path Integral Approach

Electron tunneling through small metallic islands with low capacitance is studied. The large charging energy in these systems is responsible for nonperturbative Coulomb blockade effects. We further consider the effect of electron interactions in the electrodes. In junctions with high resistance compared to the quantum resistance transport can be described by sequential tunneling. If the resistance is lower, quantum fluctuations, higher order coherent processes, and eventually resonant tunneling become important. We present a path integral real-time approach, which allows a systematic diagrammatic classification of these processes. An important process is ``inelastic resonant tunneling'', where different electrons tunnel coherently between the electrodes and the island. Physical quantities like the current and the average charge on the island can be deduced. We find a strong renormalization of the system parameters and, in addition, a finite lifetime broadening. It results in a pronounced broadening and smearing of the Coulomb oscillations of the conductance. These effects are important in an experimentally accessible range of temperatures. The electron interaction in the electrodes is modeled by a Luttinger liquid. It leads to non-analytic kernels in the effective action. The diagrammatic expansions can be performed also in this case, resulting in power-law current-voltage characteristics.

cond-mat↗

The Anderson Model out of equilibrium: Time dependent perturbations

The influence of high-frequency fields on quantum transport through a quantum dot is studied in the low-temperature regime. We generalize the non crossing approximation for the infinite-U Anderson model to the time-dependent case. The dc spectral density shows asymmetric Kondo side peaks due to photon-assisted resonant tunneling. As a consequence we predict an electron-photon pump at zero bias which is purely based on the Kondo effect. In contrast to the resonant level model and the time-independent case we observe asymmetric peak amplitudes in the Coulomb oscillations and the differential conductance versus bias voltage shows resonant side peaks with a width much smaller than the tunneling rate. All the effects might be used to clarify the question whether quantum dots indeed show the Kondo effect.

cond-mat↗