arXiv subjects

Karsten Flensberg

Publications and source records attributed to Karsten Flensberg.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2008

Strong polarization-induced reduction of addition energies in single-molecule nanojunctions

We address polarization-induced renormalization of molecular levels in solid-state based single-molecule transistors and focus on an organic conjugate molecule where a surprisingly large reduction of the addition energy has been observed. We have developed a scheme that combines a self-consistent solution of a quantum chemical calculation with a realistic description of the screening environment. Our results indeed show a large reduction, and we explain this to be a consequence of both (a) a reduction of the electrostatic molecular charging energy and (b) polarization induced level shifts of the HOMO and LUMO levels. Finally, we calculate the charge stability diagram and explain at a qualitative level general features observed experimentally.

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arXiv2007

Coulomb Blockade of a Three-terminal Quantum Dot

We study an interacting single-level quantum dot weakly coupled to three electrodes. When two electrodes are biased by voltages with opposite polarities, while keeping the third lead (the stem) grounded, the current through the stem is a measure of electron-hole asymmetry of the dot. In this setup we calculate the stem current for both metallic and ferromagnetic (collinearly polarized) leads and discuss how the three-terminal device gives additional information compared to the usual two-terminal setup. We calculate both the sequential and cotunneling contribution for the currents. For the latter part we include a regularization procedure for the cotunneling current, which enables us to also describe the behavior at the charge degeneracy points.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Electron-electron interaction effects in quantum point contacts

We consider interaction effects in quantum point contacts on the first quantization plateau, taking into account all non momentum-conserving processes. We compute low-temperature linear and non-linear conductance, shot noise, and thermopower by perturbation theory, and show that they are consistent with experimental observations on the so-called "0.7 anomaly". The full temperature-dependent conductance is obtained from self-consistent second-order perturbation theory and approaches ~ e^2/h at higher temperatures, but still smaller than the Fermi temperature.

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arXiv2007

Three-particle collisions in quantum wires: Corrections to thermopower and conductance

We consider the effect of electron-electron interaction on the electron transport through a finite length single-mode quantum wire with reflectionless contacts. The two-particle scattering events cannot alter the electric current and therefore we study the effect of three-particle collisions. Within the Boltzmann equation framework, we calculate corrections to the thermopower and conductance to the leading order in the interaction and in the length of wire $L$. We check explicitly that the three-particle collision rate is identically zero in the case of several integrable interaction potentials. In the general (non-integrable) case, we find a positive contribution to the thermopower to leading order in $L$. The processes giving rise to the correction involve electron states deep in the Fermi sea. Therefore the correction follows an activation law with the characteristic energy of the order of the Fermi energy for the electrons in the wire.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Spin-orbit induced spin-qubit control in nanowires

We elaborate on a number of issues concerning our recent proposal for spin-qubit manipulation in nanowires using the spin-orbit coupling. We discuss the experimental status and describe in further detail the scheme for single-qubit rotations. We present a derivation of the effective two-qubit coupling which can be extended to higher orders in the Coulomb interaction. The analytic expression for the coupling strength is shown to agree with numerics.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Spin-Orbit Mediated Control of Spin Qubits

We propose to use the spin-orbit interaction as a means to control electron spins in quantum dots, enabling both single qubit and two qubit operations. Very fast single qubit operations may be achieved by temporarily displacing the electrons. For two qubit operations the coupling mechanism is based on a combination of the spin-orbit coupling and the mutual long-ranged Coulomb interaction. Compared to existing schemes using the exchange coupling, the spin-orbit induced coupling is less sensitive to random electrical fluctuations in the electrodes defining the quantum dots.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Interaction-Induced Resonance in Conductance and Thermopower of Quantum Wires

We study the effect of electron-electron interaction on the transport properties of short clean quantum wires adiabatically connected to reservoirs. Interactions lead to resonances in a multi-channel wire at particular values of the Fermi energy. We investigate in detail the resonance in a two-channel wire. The (negative) conductance correction peaks at the resonance, and decays exponentially as the Fermi energy is tuned away; the resonance width being given by the temperature. Likewise, the thermopower shows a characteristic structure, which is surprisingly well approximated by the so-called Mott formula. Finally, four-fold splitting of the resonance in a magnetic field provides a unique signature of the effect.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2005

Josephson current through a molecular transistor in a dissipative environment

We study the Josephson coupling between two superconductors through a single correlated molecular level, including Coulomb interaction on the level and coupling to a bosonic environment. All calculations are done to the lowest, i.e., the fourth, order in the tunneling coupling and we find a suppression of the supercurrent due to the combined effect of the Coulomb interaction and the coupling to environmental degrees of freedom. Both analytic and numerical results are presented.

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arXiv2005

Nonequilibrium theory of Coulomb blockade in open quantum dots

We develop a non-equilibrium theory to describe weak Coulomb blockade effects in open quantum dots. Working within the bosonized description of electrons in the point contacts, we expose deficiencies in earlier applications of this method, and address them using a 1/N expansion in the inverse number of channels. At leading order this yields the self-consistent potential for the charging interaction. Coulomb blockade effects arise as quantum corrections to transport at the next order. Our approach unifies the phase functional and bosonization approaches to the problem, as well as providing a simple picture for the conductance corrections in terms of renormalization of the dot's elastic scattering matrix, which is obtained also by elementary perturbation theory. For the case of ideal contacts, a symmetry argument immediately allows us to conclude that interactions give no signature in the averaged conductance. Non-equilibrium applications to the pumped current in a quantum pump are worked out in detail.

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arXiv2005

Weak Coulomb blockade effect in quantum dots

We develop the general non-equilibrium theory of transport through a quantum dot, including Coulomb Blockade effects via a 1/N expansion, where N is the number of scattering channels. At lowest order we recover the Landauer formula for the current plus a self-consistent equation for the dot potential. We obtain the leading corrections and compare with earlier approaches. Finally, we show that to leading and next leading order in 1/N there is no interaction correction to the weak localization, in contrast to previous theories, but consistent with experiments by Huibers et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 1917 (1998)], where N=4.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2005

Electron-vibron coupling in suspended nanotubes

We consider the electron-vibron coupling in suspended nanotube quantum dots. Modelling the tube as an elastic medium, we study the possible coupling mechanism for exciting the stretching mode in a single-electron-transistor setup. Both the forces due to the longitudinal and the transverse fields are included. The effect of the longitudinal field is found to be too small to be seen in experiment. In contrast, the transverse field which couple to the stretching mode via the bending of the tube can in some cases give sizeable Franck-Condon factors. However, the length dependence is not compatible with recent experiments [Sapmaz et al. cond-mat/0508270].

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arXiv2005

On the Mott formula for thermopower of non-interactions electrons in quantum point contacts

We calculate the linear response thermopower S of a quantum point contact using the Landauer formula and therefore assume non-interacting electrons. The purpose of the paper, is to compare analytically and numerically the linear thermopower S of non-interacting electrons to the low temperature approximation, S^1=(pi^2/3e)k^2 T d(ln G(mu,T=0))/dmu, and the so-called Mott expression, S^M=(pi^2/3e)k^2 T d(ln G(mu,T))/dmu, where G(mu,T) is the (temperature dependent) conductance. This comparison is important, since the Mott formula is often used to detect deviations from single-particle behavior in the thermopower of a point contact.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2005

Non-collinear magnetoconductance of a quantum dot

We study theoretically the linear conductance of a quantum dot connected to ferromagnetic leads. The dot level is split due to a non-collinear magnetic field or intrinsic magnetization. The system is studied in the non-interacting approximation, where an exact solution is given, and, furthermore, with Coulomb correlations in the weak tunneling limit. For the non-interacting case, we find an anti-resonance for a particular direction of the applied field, non-collinear to the parallel magnetization directions of the leads. The anti-resonance is destroyed by the correlations, giving rise to an interaction induced enhancement of the conductance. The angular dependence of the conductance is thus distinctly different for the interacting and non-interacting cases when the magnetizations of the leads are parallel. However, for anti-parallel lead magnetizations the interactions do not alter the angle dependence significantly.

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arXiv2005

Rectification in single molecular dimers with strong polaron effect

We study theoretically the transport properties of a molecular two level system with large electron-vibron coupling in the Coulomb blockade regime. We show that when the electron-vibron coupling induces polaron states, the current-voltage characteristic becomes strongly asymmetric because, in one current direction, one of the polaron state blocks the current through the other. This situation occurs when the coupling between the polaron states is smaller than the coupling to the leads. We discuss the relevance of our calculation for experiments on C_140 molecules.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2004

Vibrational Sidebands and Kondo-effect in Molecular Transistors

Electron transport through molecular quantum dots coupled to a single vibrational mode is studied in the Kondo regime. We apply a generalized Schrieffer-Wolff transformation to determine the effective low-energy spin-spin-vibron-interaction. From this model we calculate the nonlinear conductance and find Kondo sidebands located at bias-voltages equal to multiples of the vibron frequency. Due to selection rules, the side-peaks are found to have strong gate-voltage dependences, which can be tested experimentally. In the limit of weak electron-vibron coupling, we employ a perturbative renormalization group scheme to calculate analytically the nonlinear conductance.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2004

Dissipative tunneling and orthogonality catastrophe in molecular transistors

Transport through molecular devices with weak tunnel coupling to the leads but with strong coupling to a single vibrational mode is considered in the case where the vibration is damped by coupling to the environment. In particular, we investigate what influence the electrostatic coupling of the charge on the molecule to the vibrational modes of the environment has on the $I$-$V$ characteristics. We find that, for comparable characteristic length scales of the van-der-Waals and electrostatic interaction of the molecule with the environmental vibrational modes, the $I$-$V$ characteristics are qualitatively changed from what one would expect from orthogonality catastrophe and develop a steplike discontinuity at the onset of conduction. For the case of very different length scales, we recover dissipation consistent with modeling the electrostatic forces as an external influence on the system comprised of molecule and substrate, which implies the appearance of orthogonality catastrophe, in accord with previous results.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2003

Tunneling broadening of vibrational sidebands in molecular transistors

Transport through molecular quantum dots coupled to a single vibration mode is studied in the case with strong coupling to the leads. We use an expansion in the correlation between electrons on the molecule and electrons in the leads and show that the tunneling broadening is strongly suppressed by the combination of the Pauli principle and the quantization of the oscillator. As a consequence the first Frank-Condon step is sharper than the higher order ones, and its width, when compared to the bare tunneling strength, is reduced by the overlap between the groundstates of the displaced and the non-displaced oscillator.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2003

Vibrational sidebands and dissipative tunneling in molecular transistors

Transport through molecular devices with strong coupling to a single vibrational mode is considered in the case where the vibration is damped by coupling to the environment. We focus on the weak tunneling limit, for which a rate equation approach is valid. The role of the environment can be characterized by a frictional damping term $\mysig(ω)$ and corresponding frequency shift. We consider a molecule that is attached to a substrate, leading to frequency-dependent frictional damping of the single oscillator mode of the molecule, and compare it to a reference model with frequency-independent damping featuring a constant quality factor $Q$. For large values of $Q$, the transport is governed by tunneling between displaced oscillator states giving rise to the well-known series of the Frank-Condon steps, while at small $Q$, there is a crossover to the classical regime with an energy gap given by the classical displacement energy. Using realistic values for the elastic properties of the substrate and the size of the molecule, we calculate $I$-$V$ curves and find qualitative agreement between our theory and recent experiments on $C_{60}$ single-molecule devices.

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