arXiv subjects

I. L. Aleiner

Publications and source records attributed to I. L. Aleiner.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2000

Kondo Temperature for the Two-Channel Kondo Models of Tunneling Centers

The possibility for a two-channel Kondo ($2CK$) non Fermi liquid state to appear in a metal as a result of the interaction between electrons and movable structural defects is revisited. As usual, the defect is modeled by a heavy particle moving in an almost symmetric double-well potential (DWP). Taking into account only the two lowest states in DWP is known to lead to a Kondo-like Hamiltonian with rather low Kondo temperature, $T_K$. We prove that, in contrast to previous believes, the contribution of higher excited states in DWP does not enhance $T_K$. On the contrary, $T_K$ is reduced by three orders of magnitude as compared with the two-level model: the prefactor in $T_K$ is determined by the spacing between the second and the third levels in DWP rather than by the electron Fermi energy. Moreover, $T_K$, turns out to be parametrically smaller than the splitting between the two lowest levels. Therefore, there is no microscopic model of movable defects which may justify non-Fermi liquid $2CK$ phenomenology.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2000

Magnetic fluctuations in 2D metals close to the Stoner instability

We consider the effect of potential disorder on magnetic properties of a two-dimensional metallic system (with conductance $g\gg 1$) when interaction in the triplet channel is so strong that the system is close to the threshold of the Stoner instability. We show, that under these conditions there is an exponentially small probability for the system to form local spin droplets which are local regions with non zero spin density. Using a non-local version of the optimal fluctuation method we find analytically the probability distribution and the typical spin of a local spin droplet (LSD). In particular, we show that both the probability to form a LSD and its typical spin are independent of the size of the droplet (within the exponential accuracy). The LSDs manifest themselves in temperature dependence of observable quantities. We show, that below certain cross-over temperature the paramagnetic susceptibility acquires the Curie-like temperature dependence, while the dephasing time (extracted from magneto-resistance measurements) saturates.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2000

Quantum Pumping in the Magnetic Field: Role of Discrete Symmetries

We consider an effect of the discrete spatial symmetries and magnetic field on the adiabatic charge pumping in mesoscopic systems. In general case, there is no symmetry of the pumped charge with respect to the inversion of magnetic field Q(B) \neq Q(-B). We find that the reflection symmetries give rise to relations Q(B)=Q(-B) or Q(B)=-Q(-B) depending on the orientation of the reflection axis. In presence of the center of inversion, Q(B) = 0. Additional symmetries may arise in the case of bilinear pumping.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2000

Mesoscopic Stoner Instability

The paper is devoted to the magnetic properties of isolated mesoscopic grains. We demonstrate that under very general conditions the electron - electron interactions in such grains can be taken into account by a simple interaction Hamiltonian. This Hamiltonian involves only three coupling constants which correspond to charging, exchange interaction, and superconducting correlations. The most important condition for such a description is that Thouless conductance of each grain is large. Under this condition sample-to-sample fluctuations of the coupling constants can be neglected. However, the thermodynamic properties can still remain sample-specific due to the one-electron part of the Hamiltonian. If the grain is made from a material which is close to the threshold of ferromagnetic instability the mesoscopic fluctuations of the magnetization are especially strong. Moreover, the situation becomes multi-stable: free energy of each grain as a function of the magnetization is characterized by a large number of local minima. We analyze the statistics of these minima and show that it possesses simple scaling properties. Numerical simulations confirm this scaling.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv1999

Effect of Time Reversal Symmetry Breaking on the Density of States in Small Superconducting Grains

We show that in ultra-small superconducting grains any concentration of magnetic impurities or infinitely small orbital effect of magnetic field leads to destruction of the hard gap in the tunneling density of states. Instead, though exponentially suppressed at low energies, the tunneling density of states exhibits the ``soft gap'' behavior, vanishing linearly with excitation energy, as the energy approaches zero.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1999

Mesoscopic Fluctuations of Adiabatic Charge Pumping in Quantum Dots

We consider the adiabatic charge transport through zero-dimensional mesoscopic sample (quantum dot) caused by two periodically changing external perturbations. Both the magnitude and the sign of the transmitted charge are extremely sensitive to the configuration of the dot and to the magnetic field. We find the correlation function characterizing the random value of this pumped charge for arbitrary strength of the perturbation. In contrast to previous theoretical and experimental claims, the charge is found not to have any symmetry with respect to the inversion of magnetic field. At strong pumping perturbation, the variance of the charge $ $ is found to be proportional to the length of the contour in parametric space.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv1999

Mesoscopic fluctuations of the Coulomb drag

We consider mesoscopic fluctuations of the Coulomb drag coefficient $ρ_D$ in the system of two separated two-dimensional electron gases. It is shown that at low temperatures sample to sample fluctuations of $ρ_D$ exceed its ensemble average. It means that in such a regime the sign of $ρ_D$ is random and the temperature dependence almost saturates $ρ_D \sim 1/\sqrt{T}$.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1999

Phase Fluctuations and Non-Equilibrium Josephson Effect

We consider a diffusive S-N-S junction with electrons in the normal layer driven out of equilibrium by external bias. We show that, the non-equilibrium fluctuations of the electron density in the normal layer cause the fluctuations of the phase of the order parameter in the S-layers. As a result, the magnitude of the Josephson current in the non-equilibrium junction is significantly supressed relative to its mean field value.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1999

Theory of Dephasing by External Perturbation in Open Quantum Dots

We propose a random matrix theory describing the influence of a time dependent external field on the average magnetoresistance of open quantum dots. The effect is taken into account in all orders of perturbation theory, and the result is applicable to both weak and strong external fields.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv1999

Theory of Interaction Effects in N-S Junctions out of Equilibrium

We consider a normal metal - superconductor (N-S) junction in the regime, when electrons in the normal metal are driven out of equilibrium. We show that the non-equilibrium fluctuations of the electron density in the N-layer cause the fluctuations of the phase of the order parameter in the S-layer. As a result, the density of states in the superconductor deviates from the BCS form, most notably the density of states in the gap becomes finite. This effect can be viewed as a result of the time reversal symmetry breaking due to the non-equilibrium, and can be described in terms of a low energy collective mode of the junction, which couples normal currents in N-layer and supercurrents. This mode is analogous to the Schmid-Schön mode. To interpret their measurements of the tunneling current, Pothier {\em et. al} [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 79}, 3490 (1997)] had to assume that the energy relaxation rate in the normal metal is surprisingly high. The broadening of the BCS singularity of the density of states in the S-layer manifest itself similarly to the broadening of the distribution function. Mechanism suggested here can be a possible explanation of this experimental puzzle. We also propose an independent experiment to test our explanation.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv1998

Comment on "Quantum Decoherence in Disordered Mesoscopic Systems"

In a recent paper, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 1074 (1998), Golubev and Zaikin (GZ) found that ``zero-point fluctuations of electrons'' contribute to the dephasing rate extracted from the magnetoresistance. As a result, the dephasing rate remains finite at zero temperature. GZ claimed that their results ``agree well with the experimental data''. We point out that the GZ results are incompatible with (i) conventional perturbation theory of the effects of interaction on weak localization (WL), and (ii) with the available experimental data. More detailed criticism of GZ findings can be found in cond-mat/9808053.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv1998

Interaction effects and phase relaxation in disordered systems

This paper is intended to demonstrate that there is no need to revise the existing theory of the transport properties of disordered conductors in the so-called weak localization regime. In particular, we demonstrate explicitly that recent attempts to justify theoretically that the dephasing rate (extracted from the magnetoresistance) remains finite at zero temperature are based on the profoundly incorrect calculation. This demonstration is based on a straightforward evaluation of the effect of the electron-electron interaction on the weak localization correction to the conductivity of disordered metals. Using well-controlled perturbation theory with the inverse conductance $g$ as the small parameter, we show that this effect consists of two contributions. First contribution comes from the processes with energy transfer smaller than the temperature. This contribution is responsible for setting the energy scale for the magnetoresistance. The second contribution originates from the virtual processes with energy transfer larger than the temperature. It is shown that the latter processes have nothing to do with the dephasing, but rather manifest the second order (in $1/g$) correction to the conductance. This correction is calculated for the first time. The paper also contains a brief review of the existing experiments on the dephasing of electrons in disordered conductors and an extended qualitative discussion of the quantum corrections to the conductivity and to the density of electronic states in the weak localization regime.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv1998

Effects of electron-electron interaction on the conductance of open quantum dots

We study the effect of electron-electron interaction on the conductance of open quantum dots. We find that Coulomb interactions (i) do not affect the ensemble averaged conductance if time-reversal symmetry has been broken by a magnetic field, (ii) enhance weak localization and weak anti-localization corrections to in the absence of a magnetic field, (iii) increase conductance fluctuations, and (iv) enhance the effect of short trajectories on the conductivity of quantum dot.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv1998

Density of states of a two-dimensional electron gas in a non-quantizing magnetic field

We study local density of electron states of a two-dimentional conductor with a smooth disorder potential in a non-quantizing magnetic field, which does not cause the standart de Haas-van Alphen oscillations. It is found, that despite the influence of such ``classical'' magnetic field on the average electron density of states (DOS) is negligibly small, it does produce a significant effect on the DOS correlations. The corresponding correlation function exhibits oscillations with the characteristic period of cyclotron quantum $\hbarω_c$.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv1998

Adiabatic charge pumping in almost open dots

We consider adiabatic charge transport through an almost open quantum dot. We show that the charge transmitted in one cycle is quantized in the limit of vanishing temperature and one-electron mean level spacing in the dot. The explicit analytic expression for the pumped charge at finite temperature is obtained for spinless electrons. The pumped charge is produced by both non-dissipative and dissipative currents. The latter are responsible for the corrections to charge quantization which are expressed through the conductance of the system.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv1998

Phase Relaxation of Electrons in Disordered Conductors

Conduction electrons in disordered metals and heavily doped semiconductors at low temperatures preserve their phase coherence for a long time: phase relaxation time $τ_ϕ$ can be orders of magnitude longer than the momentum relaxation time. The large difference in these time scales gives rise to well known effects of weak localization, such as anomalous magnetoresistance. Among other interesting characteristics, study of these effects provide quantitative information on the dephasing rate $1/τ_ϕ$. This parameter is of fundamental interest: the relation between $\hbar/τ_ϕ$ and the temperature $T$ (a typical energy scale of an electron) determines how well a single electron state is defined. We will discuss the basic physical meaning of $1/τ_ϕ$ in different situations and its difference from the energy relaxation rate. At low temperatures, the phase relaxation rate is governed by collisions between electrons. We will review existing theories of dephasing by these collisions or (which is the same) by electric noise inside the sample. We also discuss recent experiments on the magnetoresistance of 1D systems: some of them show saturation of $1/τ_ϕ$ at low temperatures, the other do not. To resolve this contradiction we discuss dephasing by an external microwave field and by nonequilibrium electric noise.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv1998

Theory of Tunneling Anomaly in Superconductor above Paramagnetic Limit

We study the tunneling density of states (DoS) in the superconducting systems driven by Zeeman splitting $E_Z$ into the paramagnetic phase. We show that, even though the BCS gap disappears, superconducting fluctuations cause a strong DoS singularity in the vicinity of energies $-E^*$ for electrons polarized along the magnetic field and $E^*$ for the opposite polarization. The position of this singularity $E^*=\case{1}{2}(E_Z + \sqrt{E_Z^2- Δ^2})$ (where $Δ$ is BCS gap at $E_Z=0$) is universal. We found analytically the shape of the DoS for different dimensionality of the system. For ultra-small grains the singularity has the shape of the hard gap, while in higher dimensions it appears as a significant though finite dip. The spin-orbit scattering, and the orbital magnetic field suppress the singularity. Our results are qualitatively consistent with recent experiments in superconducting films.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1998

Mesoscopic charge fluctuations in the Coulomb blockade regime

We study mesoscopic fluctuations of the differential capacitance of a dot connected to a lead by a single-mode quantum channel with adjustable conductance G. We show that the amplitude of the fluctuations reaches maximum at a partially opened channel, G\lesssim e^2/π\hbar. Parametric correlations of fluctuations at different values of the applied voltage and magnetic field can be studied experimentally, and we find the corresponding correlation functions for the differential capacitance.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗