arXiv subjects

Piet W. Brouwer

Publications and source records attributed to Piet W. Brouwer.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2009

Crossover from quantum to Boltzmann transport in graphene

We compare a fully quantum mechanical numerical calculation of the conductivity of graphene to the semiclassical Boltzmann theory. Considering a disorder potential that is smooth on the scale of the lattice spacing, we find quantitative agreement between the two approaches away from the Dirac point. At the Dirac point the two theories are incompatible at weak disorder, although they may be compatible for strong disorder. Our numerical calculations provide a quantitative description of the full crossover between the quantum and semiclassical graphene transport regimes.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Enhanced triplet Andreev reflection off a domain wall in a lateral geometry

We find that the triplet Andreev reflection amplitude at the interface between a half-metal and an s-wave superconductor in the presence of a domain wall is significantly enhanced if the half metal is a thin film, rather than an extended magnet. The enhancement is by a factor $l_{\rm d}/d$, where $l_{\rm d}$ is the width of the domain wall and $d$ the film thickness. We conclude that in a lateral geometry, domain walls can be an effective source of the triplet proximity effect.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Temperature and magnetic-field dependence of the quantum corrections to the conductance of a network of quantum dots

We calculate the magnetic-field and temperature dependence of all quantum corrections to the ensemble-averaged conductance of a network of quantum dots. We consider the limit that the dimensionless conductance of the network is large, so that the quantum corrections are small in comparison to the leading, classical contribution to the conductance. For a quantum dot network the conductance and its quantum corrections can be expressed solely in terms of the conductances and form factors of the contacts and the capacitances of the quantum dots. In particular, we calculate the temperature dependence of the weak localization correction and show that it is described by an effective dephasing rate proportional to temperature.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Anderson localization from classical trajectories

We show that Anderson localization in quasi-one dimensional conductors with ballistic electron dynamics, such as an array of ballistic chaotic cavities connected via ballistic contacts, can be understood in terms of classical electron trajectories only. At large length scales, an exponential proliferation of trajectories of nearly identical classical action generates an abundance of interference terms, which eventually leads to a suppression of transport coefficients. We quantitatively describe this mechanism in two different ways: the explicit description of transition probabilities in terms of interfering trajectories, and an hierarchical integration over fluctuations in the classical phase space of the array cavities.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Interaction correction to the conductance of a ballistic conductor

In disordered metals, electron-electron interactions are the origin of a small correction to the conductivity, the "Altshuler-Aronov correction". Here we investigate the Altshuler-Aronov correction of a conductor in which the electron motion is ballistic and chaotic. We consider the case of a double quantum dot, which is the simplest example of a ballistic conductor in which the Altshuler-Aronov correction is nonzero. The fact that the electron motion is ballistic leads to an exponential suppression of the correction if the Ehrenfest time is larger than the mean dwell time or the inverse temperature.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Semiclassical theory of the Ehrenfest-time dependence of quantum transport

In ballistic conductors, there is a low-time threshold for the appearance of quantum effects in transport coefficients. This low-time threshold is the Ehrenfest time. Most previous studies of the Ehrenfest-time dependence of quantum transport assumed ergodic electron dynamics, so that they could be applied to ballistic quantum dots only. In this article we present a theory of the Ehrenfest-time dependence of three signatures of quantum transport - the Fano factor for the shot noise power, the weak localization correction to the conductance, and the conductance fluctuations - for arbitrary ballistic conductors.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Universal parametric correlations in the classical limit of quantum transport

Quantum corrections to transport through a chaotic ballistic cavity are known to be universal. The universality not only applies to the magnitude of quantum corrections, but also to their dependence on external parameters, such as the Fermi energy or an applied magnetic field. Here we consider such parameter dependence of quantum transport in a ballistic chaotic cavity in the semiclassical limit obtained by sending Planck's constant to zero without changing the classical dynamics of the open cavity. In this limit quantum corrections are shown to have a universal parametric dependence which is not described by random matrix theory.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Interplay of Ehrenfest time and dephasing time in ballistic conductors

Quantum interference corrections in ballistic conductors require a minimal time: the Ehrenfest time. In this letter, we investigate the fate of the interference corrections to quantum transport in bulk ballistic conductors if the Ehrenfest time and the dephasing time are comparable.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Semiclassical theory of a quantum pump

In a quantum charge pump, the periodic variation of two parameters that affect the phase of the electronic wavefunction causes the flow of a direct current. The operating mechanism of a quantum pump is based on quantum interference, the phases of interfering amplitudes being modulated by the external parameters. In a ballistic quantum dot, there is a minimum time before which quantum interference can not occur: the Ehrenfest time. Here we calculate the current pumped through a ballistic quantum dot when the Ehrenfest time is comparable to the mean dwell time. Remarkably, we find that the pumped current has a component that is not suppressed if the Ehrenfest time is much larger than the mean dwell time.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Theory of the spin-torque-driven ferromagnetic resonance in a ferromagnet/normal-metal/ferromagnet structure

We present a theoretical analysis of current driven ferromagnetic resonance in a ferromagnet/normal-metal/ferromagnet tri-layer. This method of driving ferromagnetic resonance was recently realized experimentally by Tulapurkar et al. [Nature 438, 339 (2005)] and Sankey et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 227601 (2006)]. The precessing magnetization rectifies the alternating current applied to drive the ferromagnetic resonance and leads to the generation of a dc voltage. Our analysis shows that a second mechanism to generate a dc voltage, rectification of spin currents emitted by the precessing magnetization, has a contribution to the dc voltage that is of approximately equal size for the thin ferromagnetic films used in the experiment.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

The sloppy model universality class and the Vandermonde matrix

In a variety of contexts, physicists study complex, nonlinear models with many unknown or tunable parameters to explain experimental data. We explain why such systems so often are sloppy; the system behavior depends only on a few `stiff' combinations of the parameters and is unchanged as other `sloppy' parameter combinations vary by orders of magnitude. We contrast examples of sloppy models (from systems biology, variational quantum Monte Carlo, and common data fitting) with systems which are not sloppy (multidimensional linear regression, random matrix ensembles). We observe that the eigenvalue spectra for the sensitivity of sloppy models have a striking, characteristic form, with a density of logarithms of eigenvalues which is roughly constant over a large range. We suggest that the common features of sloppy models indicate that they may belong to a common universality class. In particular, we motivate focusing on a Vandermonde ensemble of multiparameter nonlinear models and show in one limit that they exhibit the universal features of sloppy models.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2006

The spectral form factor near the Ehrenfest-time

We calculate the Ehrenfest-time dependence of the leading quantum correction to the spectral form factor of a ballistic chaotic cavity using periodic orbit theory. For the case of broken time-reversal symmetry, our result differs from that previously obtained using field-theoretic methods [Tian and Larkin, Phys. Rev. B 70, 035305 (2004)]. The discrepancy shows that short-time regularization procedures dramatically affect physics near the Ehrenfest-time.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2006

Towards a semiclassical justification of the `effective random matrix theory' for transport through ballistic chaotic quantum dots

The scattering matrix S of a ballistic chaotic cavity is the direct sum of a `classical' and a `quantum' part, which describe the scattering of channels with typical dwell time smaller and larger than the Ehrenfest time, respectively. According to the `effective random matrix theory' of Silvestrov, Goorden, and Beenakker [Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 116801 (2003)], statistical averages involving the quantum-mechanical scattering matrix are given by random matrix theory. While this effective random matrix theory is known not to be applicable for quantum interference corrections to transport, which appear to subleading order in the number of scattering channels N, it is believed to correctly describe quantum transport to leading order in N. We here partially verify this belief, by comparing the predictions of the effective random matrix theory for the ensemble averages of polynomial functions of S and S^dagger of degree 2, 4, and 6 to a semiclassical calculation.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Ehrenfest time and the coherent backscattering off ballistic cavities

If the Ehrenfest time tau_E of a ballistic cavity is not negligible in comparison to its dwell time tau_D, the weak localization correction to the cavity's transmission is suppressed proportional to exp(-tau_E/tau_D). At the same time, quantum interference enhances the probability of reflection into the mode of incidence by a factor two. This `enhanced backscattering' does not depend on the Ehrenfest time. We show that, in addition to the diagonal enhanced backscattering, there are off-diagonal contributions to coherent backscattering that become relevant if the Ehrenfest time is not negligible.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

A semiclassical theory of the Ehrenfest-time dependence of quantum transport in ballistic quantum dots

We present a trajectory-based semiclassical calculation of the Ehrenfest-time dependence of the weak localization correction and the universal conductance fluctuations of a ballistic quantum dot with ideal point contacts. While the weak localization correction is proportional to exp(-tau_E/tau_D), where tau_E and tau_D are the dot's Ehrenfest time and dwell time, respectively, the variance of the conductance is found to be independent of tau_E. The latter is in agreement with numerical simulations of the quantum kicked rotator [Tworzydlo et al., Phys. Rev. B 69, 165318 (2004) and Jacquod and Sukhorukov, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 116801 (2004)].

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Classical limit of transport in quantum kicked maps

We investigate the behavior of weak localization, conductance fluctuations, and shot noise of a chaotic scatterer in the semiclassical limit. Time resolved numerical results, obtained by truncating the time-evolution of a kicked quantum map after a certain number of iterations, are compared to semiclassical theory. Considering how the appearance of quantum effects is delayed as a function of the Ehrenfest time gives a new method to compare theory and numerical simulations. We find that both weak localization and shot noise agree with semiclassical theory, which predicts exponential suppression with increasing Ehrenfest time. However, conductance fluctuations exhibit different behavior, with only a slight dependence on the Ehrenfest time.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2005

Mesoscopic anisotropic magnetoconductance fluctuations in ferromagnets

The conductance of a ferromagnetic particle depends on the relative orientation of the magnetization with respect to the direction of current flow. This phenomenon is known as "anisotropic magnetoresistance". Quantum interference leads to an additional, random dependence of the conductance on the magnetization direction. These "anisotropic magnetoresistance fluctuations" are caused by spin-orbit scattering, which couples the electron motion to the exchange field in the ferromagnet. We report a calculation of the dependence of the conductance autocorrelation function on the rotation angle of the magnetization direction.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

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.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗