arXiv subjects

Karyn Le Hur

Publications and source records attributed to Karyn Le Hur.

140 records · Page 8Linked to original sources

arXiv2002

Capacitance of a quantum dot from the channel-anisotropic two-channel Kondo model

We investigate the charge fluctuations of a large quantum dot coupled to a two-dimensional electron gas via a quantum point contact following the work of Matveev. We limit our discussion to the case where exactly two channels enter the dot and we discuss the role of an anisotropy between the transmission coefficients (for these two channels) at the constriction. Experimentally, a channel-anisotropy can be introduced applying a relatively weak in-plane magnetic field to the system when only one ``orbital'' channel is open. The magnetic field leads to different transmission amplitudes for spin-up and spin-down electrons. In a strong magnetic field the anisotropic two-channel limit corresponds to two (spin-polarized) orbital channels entering the dot. The physics of the charge fluctuations can be captured using a mapping on the channel-anisotropic two-channel Kondo model. For the case of weak reflection at the point contact this has already briefly been stressed by one of us in PRB {\bf 64}, 161302R (2001). This mapping is also appropriate to discuss the conductance behavior of a two-contact set-up in strong magnetic field. Here, we elaborate on this approach and also discuss an alternative solution using a mapping on a channel-isotropic Kondo model. In addition we consider the limit of weak transmission. We show that the Coulomb-staircase behavior of the charge in the dot as a function of the gate voltage, is already smeared out by a small channel-anisotropy both in the weak- and strong transmission limits.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2001

Zeeman smearing of the Coulomb blockade

Charge fluctuations of a large quantum dot coupled to a two-dimensional lead via a single-mode good Quantum Point Contact (QPC) and capacitively coupled to a back-gate, are investigated in the presence of a parallel magnetic field. The Zeeman term induces an asymmetry between transmission probabilities for the spin-up and spin-down channels at the QPC, producing noticeable effects on the quantization of the grain charge already at low magnetic fields. Performing a quantitative analysis, I show that the capacitance between the gate and the lead exhibits - instead of a logarithmic singularity - a reduced peak as a function of gate voltage. Experimental applicability is discussed.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2001

Andreev scattering in the asymmetric ladder with preformed bosonic pairs

We discuss the phase coherence which emanates from the ladder-like proximity effect between a ``weak superconductor'' with preformed bosonic pairs (here, a single-chain Luther-Emery liquid with superconducting correlations that decay approximately as $x^{-1}$) and a Fermi gas with unpaired fermions. Carefully studying tunneling mechanism(s), we show that the boson-mediated Cooper pairing between remaining unpaired electrons results in a quasi long-range superconductivity: Superconducting correlations decay very slowly as $x^{-η}$ with $η\approx 1/2$. This process is reminiscent of the coupling of fermions to preformed bosonic pairs introduced in the context of high-Tc cuprates.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2001

Weakly-coupled Hubbard chains at half-filling and Confinement

We study two (very) weakly-coupled Hubbard chains in the half-filled case, and especially the situation where the intrachain Mott scale $m$ is much larger than the bare single-electron interchain hopping $t_{\perp}$. First, we find that the divergence of the intrachain Umklapp channel at the Mott transition results in the complete vanishing of the single-electron interchain hopping: This is significant of a strong confinement of coherence along the chains. Excitations are usual charge fermionic solitons and spinon pairs of the Heisenberg chain. Then, we show rigorously how the tunneling of spinon-pairs produces a magnetic interchain exchange $J_{\perp}={t_{\perp}}^2/m>0$. The result is an insulating state with spin-gapped excitations as in the delocalized limit (i.e. for rather large interchain hoppings), where the two-leg ladder is in the well-known D-Mott phase. Unlike for Bechgaard salts, the confinement/deconfinement transition at absolute zero is here a simple crossover: no metallic phase is found in undoped two-leg ladders. This statement might be generalized for N-leg ladders with N=3,4... (but not too large).

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2000

Successive opening of the Fermi surface in doped N-leg Hubbard ladders

We study the effect of doping away from half-filling in weakly (but finitely) interacting N-leg Hubbard ladders using renormalization group and bosonization techniques. For a small on-site repulsion U, the N-leg Hubbard ladders are equivalent to a N-band model, where at half-filling the Fermi velocities are v_{1}=v_{N}<v_{2}=v_{N-1}<... We then obtain a hierarchy of energy-scales, where the band pairs (j,N+1-j) are successively frozen out. The low-energy Hamiltonian is then the sum of N/2 (or (N-1)/2 for N odd) two-leg ladder Hamiltonians without gapless excitations (plus a single chain for N odd with one gapless spin mode), similar to the N-leg Heisenberg spin-ladders. The energy-scales lead to a hierarchy of gaps. Upon doping away from half-filling, the holes enter first the band(s) with the smallest gap: For odd N, the holes enter first the nonbonding band (N+1)/2 and the phase is a Luttinger liquid, while for even N, the holes enter first the band pair (N/2,N/2+1) and the phase is a Luther-Emery liquid, similar to numerical treatments of the t-J model, i.e., at and close to half-filling, the phases of the Hubbard ladders for small and large U are the same. For increasing doping, hole-pairs subsequently enter at critical dopings the other band pairs (j,N+1-j) (accompanied by a diverging compressibility): The Fermi surface is successively opened by doping, starting near the wave vector (pi/2,pi/2). Explicit calculations are given for the cases N=3,4.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2000

Metal-Kondo insulating transitions and transport in one dimension

We study two different metal-insulating transitions possibly occurring in one-dimensional Kondo lattices. First, we show how doping the pure Kondo lattice model in the strong-coupling limit, results in a Pokrovsky-Talapov transition. This produces a conducting state with a charge susceptibility diverging as the inverse of the doping, that seems in agreement with numerical datas. Second, in the weak-coupling region, Kondo insulating transitions arise due to the consequent renormalization of the backward Kondo scattering. Here, the interplay between Kondo effect and electron-electron interactions gives rise to significant phenomena in transport, in the high-temperature delocalized (ballistic) regime. For repulsive interactions, as a perfect signature of Kondo localization, the conductivity is found to decrease monotonically with temperature. When interactions become attractive, spin fluctuations in the electron (Luttinger-type) liquid are suddenly lowered. The latter is less localized by magnetic impurities than for the repulsive counterpart, and as a result a large jump in the Drude weight and a maximum in the conductivity arise in the entrance of the Kondo insulating phase. These can be viewed as remnants of s-wave superconductivity arising for attractive enough interactions. Comparisons with transport in the single impurity model are also performed. We finally discuss the case of randomly distributed magnetic defects, and the applications on persistent currents of mesoscopic rings.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2000

Kondo effect in a one dimensional d-wave superconductor

We derive a solvable resonant-level type model, to describe an impurity spin coupled to zero-energy bound states localized at the edge of a one dimensional d-wave superconductor. This results in a two-channel Kondo effect with a quite unusual low-temperature thermodynamics. For instance, the local impurity susceptibility yields a finite maximum at zero temperature (but no logarithmic-divergence) due to the splitting of the impurity in two Majorana fermions. Moreover, we make comparisons with the Kondo effect occurring in a two dimensional d-wave superconductor.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1999

Kondo effect in crossed Luttinger liquids

We study the Kondo effect in two crossed Luttinger liquids, using Boundary Conformal Field Theory. We predict two types of critical behaviors: either a two-channel Kondo fixed point with a nonuniversal Wilson ratio, or a new theory with an anomalous response identical to that found by Furusaki and Nagaosa (for the Kondo effect in a single Luttinger liquid). Moreover, we discuss the relevance of perturbations like channel anisotropy, and we make links with the Kondo effect in a two-band Hubbard system modeled by a channel-dependent Luttinger Hamiltonian. The suppression of backscattering off the impurity produces a model similar to the four-channel Kondo theory.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1999

Phases of the two-band model of spinless fermions in one dimension

We study the two-band model of spinless fermions in one dimension for weak repulsive interactions. In this case, the model is equivalent to the weakly interacting spinless two-leg ladder. We obtain analytic expressions for the superconducting pairing correlation function and the charge density correlation function, which show, that a finite interchain hopping t_p results in dominant superconductivity for repulsive interactions (for vanishing t_p, we recover previous results). We furthermore find that the transition from the superconducting phase to the usual one-dimensional (Luttinger) metal at large doping occurs via a mixed phase, where superconducting pairs are formed in the bonding band only. We give the phase diagram as a function of temperature and doping.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1999

Critical Ising modes in low-dimensional Kondo insulators

We present an Ising-like intermediate phase for one-dimensional Kondo insulator systems. Resulting from a spinon splitting, its low-energy excitations are critical Ising modes, whereas the triplet sector has a spectral gap. It should occur as long as the RKKY oscillation amplitude dominates over any direct exchange between localized spins. The chiral fixed point, however, becomes unstable in the far Infra-Red limit due to prevalent fluctuations among localized spins which induce gapless triplet excitations in the spectrum. Based on previous numerical results, we obtain a paramagnetic disordered state ruled by the correlation length of the single impurity Kondo model.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1999

The underscreened Kondo effect in ladder systems

We introduce a new Kondo ladder model by coupling the well-known Takhtajan-Babujan S=1 chain to a half-filled one-dimensional electron gas, and we solve it using quantum field theory techniques. Through the so-called underscreened Kondo effect, this gives novel insights into low-dimensional spin liquid systems. For instance, the optical conductivity reveals only a pseudogap at $k=π$ despite of the insulating state, a coherent magnon peak in the dynamical spin susceptibility coexists with an incoherent spinon background, the magnetization yields a fractional-like quantization. More generally, this problem belongs to the class of Luttinger liquids in active environments, a topic of importance not only to the Kondo physics, but also to striped phases or carbon nanotubes. Experimental consequences on heavy-fermion systems are also discussed.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1999

Kondo effect in a Luttinger liquid: nonuniversality of the Wilson ratio

Using a precise coset Ising-Bose representation, we show how backscattering of electrons off a magnetic impurity destabilizes the two-channel Kondo fixed point and drives the system to a new fixed point, in agreement with previous results. In addition, we verify the scaling proposed by Furusaki and Nagaosa and prove that the other possible critical fixed point, namely the local Fermi liquid class, is not completely universal when backscattering is included because the Wilson ratio is not well-defined in the spinon basis.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1997

Hole doping and weak quenched disorder effects on the 1D Kondo lattice for ferromagnetic Kondo couplings

We investigate the one-dimensional Kondo lattice model (1D KLM) for ferromagnetic Kondo couplings, by using the bosonization method. The ferromagnet ic 2-leg spin ladder and the S=1 antiferromagnet occur as new one-dimensional Kondo insulators, for a half-filled band. First,a very small hole-doping makes the charge sector massless and it can produce, either an incommensurate RKKY interaction or a S=1 ferromagnet according to the strength of the ferromagnetic Kondo coupling. Second, we investigate, the effects of a weak and quenched disorder on these two Kondo insulators, by applying renormalization group methods: the Anderson localization is suppressed only in the context of a strong ferromagnetic Kondo coupling.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1997

The underscreened Kondo effect: a two S=1 impurity model

The underscreened Kondo effect is studied within a model of two impurities S=1 interacting with the conduction band and via an interimpurity coupling $K\vec{S_1}.\vec{S_2}$. Using a mean-field treatment of the bosonized Hamiltonian, we show that there is no phase transition, but a continuous cross-over versus K from a non Kondo behaviour to an underscreened Kondo one. For a small antiferromagnetic coupling (K>0), a completely asymmetric situation is obtained with one s=${1/2}$ component strongly screened by the Kondo effect and the other one almost free to yield indirect magnetism, which shows finally a possible coexistence between a RKKY interaction and a local Kondo effect, as observed in Uranium compounds such as $UPt_3$.

cond-mat.str-el↗