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Hiroshi Imamura

Publications and source records attributed to Hiroshi Imamura.

84 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

Orbital Magnetism in Three-Dimensional Quantum Dots

We study orbital magnetism in a three-dimensional (3D) quantum dot with a parabolic confining potential. We calculate the free energy of the system as a function of the magnetic field and the temperature. By this, we show that the temperature-field plane can be classified into three regions in terms of the characteristic behavior of the magnetization: the Landau diamagnetism, de Haas-van Alphen oscillation and mesoscopic fluctuation of magnetization. We also calculate numerically the magnetization of the system and then the current density distribution. As for the oscillation of the magnetization when the field is varied, the 3D quantum dot shows a longer period than a 2D quantum dot which contains the same number of electrons. A large paramagnetism appears at low temperatures when the magnetic field is very weak.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Dephasing of a qubit coupled with a point-contact detector

The dephasing of a qubit coupled with a point-contact detector is theoretically studied. We calculate the time evolution of the reduced density matrix of qubit by using the perturbation expansion. We show that the dephasing rate is proportional to the temperature at zero bias-voltage, while it is proportional to the bias-voltage when the bias-voltage is large. We also evaluate the dephasing rate by using the real time renormalization group method and show that the higher order processes of the particle-hole excitation enhances dephasing of qubit.

cond-mat↗

Andreev Reflection in Narrow Ferromagnet/Superconductor Point Contacts

The Andreev reflection of narrow ferromagnet/superconductor point contacts is theoretically studied. We show that the conductance quantization depends on whether the contact region is superconducting or ferromagnetic as well as on the strength of the exchange field in the ferromagnet. The Andreev reflection of the ferromagnetic contact is more suppressed than that of the superconducting contact. We also show that the conductance-voltage curve has a bump at zero bias-voltage if there is no interfacial-scattering. On the contrary, the conductance-voltage curve shows a dip if the system has an interfacial-scattering.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Spin-relaxation and magnetoresistance in FM/SC/FM tunnel junctions

The effect of spin relaxation on tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) in a ferromagnet/superconductor/ferromagnet (FM/SC/FM) double tunnel junction is theoretically studied. The spin accumulation in SC is determined by balancing of the spin-injection rate and the spin-relaxation rate. In the superconducting state, the spin-relaxation time becomes longer with decreasing temperature, resulting in a rapid increase of TMR. The TMR of FM/SC/FM junctions provides a useful probe to extract information about spin-relaxation in superconductors.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

The effect of charge fluctuation on a normal-superconducting-normal single-electron transistor

We theoretically investigate quantum fluctuation of charge between even and odd states of a normal-superconducting-normal single-electron tunneling transistor. It is shown that due to the superconducting gap, the charge fluctuation in the Coulomb blockade regime for even state is larger than that for odd state. We show that large energy correction in the former regime caused by charge fluctuation can be explained by considering the charging energy renormalization.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Spin injection and magnetoresistance in ferromagnet/superconductor/ferromagnet tunnel junctions

We theoretically study the spin-dependent transport in a ferromagnet/superconductor/ferro-magnet double barrier tunnel junction. The spin-polarized tunneling currents give rise to spin imbalance in the superconductor. The resulting nonequilibrium spin density suppresses the superconductivity with increase of the tunneling currents. We focus on the effect of asymmetry in the double tunnel junction, where the barrier height of the tunnel junction and the spin-polarization of the ferromagnets are different, on spin injection, and discuss how the superconductivity is suppressed in the asymmetric junction. Our results explain recent experimental results on the critical current suppression in high-$T_c$ SCs by spin injection.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

Conductance Quantization and Magnetoresistance in Magnetic Point Contacts

We theoretically study the electron transport through a magnetic point contact (PC) with special attention to the effect of an atomic scale domain wall (DW). The spin precession of a conduction electron is forbidden in such an atomic scale DW and the sequence of quantized conductances depends on the relative orientation of magnetizations between left and right electrodes. The magnetoresistance is strongly enhanced for the narrow PC and oscillates with the conductance.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Vertically coupled double quantum dots in magnetic fields

Ground-state and excited-state properties of vertically coupled double quantum dots are studied by exact diagonalization. Magic-number total angular momenta that minimize the total energy are found to reflect a crossover between electron configurations dominated by intra-layer correlation and ones dominated by inter-layer correlation. The position of the crossover is governed by the strength of the inter-layer electron tunneling and magnetic field. The magic numbers should have an observable effect on the far infra-red optical absorption spectrum, since Kohn's theorem does not hold when the confinement potential is different for two dots. This is indeed confirmed here from a numerical calculation that includes Landau level mixing. Our results take full account of the effect of spin degrees of freedom. A key feature is that the total spin, $S$, of the system and the magic-number angular momentum are intimately linked because of strong electron correlation. Thus $S$ jumps hand in hand with the total angular momentum as the magnetic field is varied. One important consequence of this is that the spin blockade (an inhibition of single-electron tunneling) should occur in some magnetic field regions because of a spin selection rule. Owing to the flexibility arising from the presence of both intra-layer and inter-layer correlations, the spin blockade is easier to realize in double dots than in single dots.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Spin-Dependent Coulomb Blockade in Ferromagnet/Normal-Metal/Ferromagnet Double Tunnel Junctions

We study theoretically the spin-dependent transport in ferromagnet/normal-metal/ferromagnet double tunnel junctions by special attention to cotunneling in the Coulomb blockade region. The spin accumulation caused by cotunneling squeezes the Coulomb blockade region when the magnetizations in the ferromagnetic electrodes are antiparallel. Outside the squeezed Coulomb blockade region, we propose a new anomalous region, where the sequential tunneling in one of the spin bands is suppressed by the Coulomb blockade and that in the other is not. In this region, the tunnel magnetoresistance oscillates as a function of bias voltage. The temperature dependences of the tunnel magnetoresistance and the magnitude of the spin accumulation are calculated.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Symmetry of `molecular' configurations of interacting electrons in a quantum dot in strong magnetic fields

A molecular description for magic-number configurations of interacting electrons in a quantum dot in high magnetic fields developed by one of the authors has been elaborated for four, five and six electron dots. For four electrons, the magic spin-singlet states are found to alternate between two different resonating valence bond (RVB)-like states. For the five-electron spin-polarized case, the molecular description is shown to work for the known phenomenon of magic-number sequences that correspond to both the N-fold symmetric ring configuration and a $(N-1)$-fold symmetric one with a center electron. A six-electron dot is shown here to have an additional feature in which inclusion of quantum mechanical mixing between classical configurations, which are deformed and degenerate, restores the N-fold symmetry and reproduces the ground-state energy accurately.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Spin-Blockade in Single and Double Quantum Dots in Magnetic Fields: a Correlation Effect

The total spin of correlated electrons in a quantum dot changes with magnetic field and this effect is generally linked to the change in the total angular momentum from one magic number to another, which can be understood in terms of an `electron molecule' picture for strong fields. Here we propose to exploit this fact to realize a spin blockade, i.e., electrons are prohibited to tunnel at specific values of the magnetic field. The spin-blockade regions have been obtained by calculating both the ground and excited states. In double dots the spin-blockade condition is found to be less stringent than in single dots.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Magic Numbers and Optical Absorption Spectrum in Vertically Coupled Quantum Dots in the Fractional Quantum Hall Regime

Exact diagonalization is used to study the quantum states of vertically coupled quantum dots in strong magnetic fields. We find a new sequence of angular momentum magic numbers which are a consequence of the electron correlation in the double dot. The new sequence occurs at low angular momenta and changes into the single dot sequence at a critical angular momentum determined by the strength of the inter-dot electron tunneling. We also propose that the magic numbers can be investigated experimentally in vertically coupled dots. Because of the generalized Kohn theorem, the far-infrared optical absorption spectrum of a single dot is unaffected by correlation but the theorem does not hold for two vertically coupled dots which have different confining potentials. We show that the absorption energy of the double dot should exhibit discontinuities at the magnetic fields where the total angular momentum changes from one magic number to another.

cond-mat↗