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Ya. M. Blanter

Publications and source records attributed to Ya. M. Blanter.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Weak Localization in Metallic Granular Media

We investigate the interference correction to the conductivity of a medium consisting of metallic grains connected by tunnel junctions. Tunneling conductance between the grains, $e^2g_{\rm T}/π\hbar$, is assumed to be large, $g_{\rm T}\gg 1$. We demonstrate that the weak localization correction to conductivity exhibits a crossover at temperature $T\sim g^2_{\rm T}δ$, where $δ$ is the mean level spacing in a single grain. At the crossover, the phase relaxation time determined by the electron-electron interaction becomes of the order of the dwell time of an electron in a grain. Below the crossover temperature, the granular array behaves as a continuous medium, while above the crossover the weak localization effect is largely a single-junction phenomenon. We elucidate the signatures of the granular structure in the temperature and magnetic field dependence of the weak localization correction.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Recent Advances in Studies of Current Noise

This is a brief review of recent activities in the field of current noise intended for newcomers. We first briefly discuss main properties of shot noise in nanostructures, and then turn to recent developments, concentrating on issues related to experimental progress: non-symmetrized cumulants and quantum noise; counting statistics; super-Poissonian noise; current noise and interferometry.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Tunneling in suspended carbon nanotubes assisted by longitudinal phonons

Current-voltage characteristics of suspended single-wall carbon nanotube quantum dots show a series of steps equally spaced in voltage. The energy scale of this harmonic, low-energy excitation spectrum is consistent with that of the longitudinal low-k phonon mode (stretching mode) in the nanotube. Agreement is found with a Franck-Condon-based model in which the phonon-assisted tunneling process is modeled as a coupling of electronic levels to underdamped quantum harmonic oscillators. Comparison with this model indicates a rather strong electron-phonon coupling factor of order unity.

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Nonequilibrium mesoscopic conductance fluctuations

We investigate the amplitude of mesoscopic fluctuations of the differential conductance of a metallic wire at arbitrary bias voltage V. For non-interacting electrons, the variance increases with V. The asymptotic large-V behavior is \sim V/V_c (where eV_c=D/L^2 is the Thouless energy), in agreement with the earlier prediction by Larkin and Khmelnitskii. We find, however, that this asymptotics has a very small numerical prefactor and sets in at very large V/V_c only, which strongly complicates its experimental observation. This high-voltage behavior is preceded by a crossover regime, V/V_c \lesssim 30, where the conductance variance increases by a factor \sim 3 as compared to its value in the regime of universal conductance fluctuations (i.e., at V->0). We further analyze the effect of dephasing due to the electron-electron scattering on at high voltages. With the Coulomb interaction taken into account, the amplitude of conductance fluctuations becomes a non-monotonic function of V. Specifically, drops as 1/V for voltages V >> gV_c, where g is the dimensionless conductance. In this regime, the conductance fluctuations are dominated by quantum-coherent regions of the wire adjacent to the reservoirs.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Single-electron Tunneling with Strong Mechanical Feedback

We show that there is a regime of strong feedback for a nanomechanical oscillatory mode weakly coupled to a single-electron tunneling device. In this regime, the current is strongly modified whereas the current noise is parametrically big exceeding the Schottky limit by orders of magnitude. This regime requires a high quality factor of nanomechanical oscillations.

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Statistics of Transmission Eigenvalues for a Disordered Quantum Point Contact

We study the distribution of transmission eigenvalues of a quantum point contact with nearby impurities. In the semi-classical case (the chemical potential lies at the conductance plateau) we find that the transmission properties of this system are obtained from the ensemble of Gaussian random reflection matrices. The distribution only depends on the number of open transport channels and the average reflection eigenvalue and crosses over from the Poissonian for one open channel to the form predicted by the circuit theory in the limit of large number of open channels.

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Supercurrent in Long SFFS Junctions with Antiparallel Domain Configuration

We calculate the current-phase relation of a long Josephson junction consisting of two ferromagnetic domains with equal, but opposite magnetization $h$, sandwiched between two superconductors. In the clean limit, the current-phase relation is obtained with the help of Eilenberger equation. In general, the supercurrent oscillations are non-sinusoidal and their amplitude decays algebraically when the exchange field is increased. If the two domains have the same size, the amplitude is independent of $h$, due to an exact cancellation of the phases acquired in each ferromagnetic domain. These results change drastically in the presence of disorder. We explicitly study two cases: Fluctuations of the domain size (in the framework of the Eilenberger equation) and impurity scattering (using the Usadel equation). In both cases, the current-phase relation becomes sinusoidal and the amplitude of the supercurrent oscillations is exponentially suppressed with $h$, even if the domains are identical on average.

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Carbon Nanotubes as Nanoelectromechanical Systems

We theoretically study the interplay between electrical and mechanical properties of suspended, doubly clamped carbon nanotubes in which charging effects dominate. In this geometry, the capacitance between the nanotube and the gate(s) depends on the distance between them. This dependence modifies the usual Coulomb models and we show that it needs to be incorporated to capture the physics of the problem correctly. We find that the tube position changes in discrete steps every time an electron tunnels onto it. Edges of Coulomb diamonds acquire a (small) curvature. We also show that bistability in the tube position occurs and that tunneling of an electron onto the tube drastically modifies the quantized eigenmodes of the tube. Experimental verification of these predictions is possible in suspended tubes of sub-micron length.

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Correlation Functions for an Elastic String in a Random Potential: Instanton Approach

We develop an instanton technique for calculations of correlation functions characterizing statistical behavior of the elastic string in disordered media and apply the proposed approach to correlations of string free energies corresponding to different low-lying metastable positions. We find high-energy tails of correlation functions for the case of long-range disorder (the disorder correlation length well exceeds the characteristic distance between the sequential string positions) and short-range disorder with the correlation length much smaller then the characteristic string displacements. The former case refers to energy distributions and correlations on the distances below the Larkin correlation length, while the latter describes correlations on the large spatial scales relevant for the creep dynamics.

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Inelastic Scattering Time for Conductance Fluctuations

We revisit the problem of inelastic times governing the temperature behavior of the weak localization correction and mesoscopic fluctuations in one- and two-dimensional systems. It is shown that, for dephasing by the electron electron interaction, not only are those times identical but the scaling functions are also the same.

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Level and Eigenfunction Statistics in Billiards with Surface Scattering

Statistical properties of billiards with diffusive boundary scattering are investigated by means of the supersymmetric sigma-model in a formulation appropriate for chaotic ballistic systems. We study level statistics, parametric level statistics, and properties of electron wavefunctions. In the universal regime, our results reproduce conclusions of the random matrix theory, while beyond this regime we obtain a variety of system-specific results determined by the classical dynamics in the billiard. Most notably, we find that level correlations do not vanish at arbitrary separation between energy levels, or if measured at arbitrarily large difference of magnetic fields. Saturation of the level number variance indicates strong rigidity of the spectrum. To study spatial correlations of wavefunction amplitudes, we reanalyze and refine derivation of the ballistic version of the sigma-model. This allows us to obtain a proper matching of universal short-scale correlations with system-specific ones.

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Resistivity and 1/f Noise in Non-Metallic Phase Separated Manganites

A simple model is proposed to calculate resistivity, magnetoresistance, and noise spectrum in non-metallic phase-separated manganites containing small metallic droplets (magnetic polarons). The system is taken to be far from the percolation transition into a metallic state. It is assumed that the charge transfer occurs due to electron tunneling from one droplet to another through the insulating medium. As a result of this tunneling, the droplets acquire or lose extra electrons forming metastable two-electron and empty states. In the framework of this model, explicit expressions for dc conductivity and noise power of the system are derived. It is shown that the noise spectrum has 1/f form in the low-frequency range.

cond-mat.str-el↗

Shallow Coulomb Gap and Weak Level-Level Correlations in a Deeply Insulating Electron System with Interactions

We consider a system of two-dimensional electrons strongly localized by disorder. Interactions create a gap in the average tunneling density of states $ν(E)$ at energies, E, close to the Fermi level. We derive a system of self-consistent equations for the correlators of local densities of occupied and empty states. When either the interactions are screened by the gate or the temperature, T, is high enough, so that the Coulomb gap is shallow, the perturbative solution of the system yields analytical expressions for the interaction-induced correction $δν(E)$ and the level-level correlator. We show that even with short-range interactions, $δν(E)$ exhibits a singular energy dependence at T=0. We also demonstrate that at high T this energy dependence is a universal function of the the ratio $E/T$. Regarding the level correlations, we trace how the correlator falls off as a function of spatial and energy separation between the levels. We also trace how the correlations vanish with increasing T. Our most noticeable observation is that for two close energies the correlator changes sign from positive (attraction) at small distances to negative (repulsion) at large distances.

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Effect of Dephasing on Charge-Counting Statistics in Chaotic Cavities

We calculate the cumulants of the charge transmitted through a chaotic cavity in the limit that the two openings have a large number of scattering channels. The shot noise, which is the second cumulant, is known to be insensitive to dephasing in this limit. Unexpectedly, the fourth and higher cumulants are found to depend on dephasing: A semiclassical theory and a quantum mechanical model with strong dephasing give a different result than a fully phase-coherent quantum mechanical theory.

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Shot Noise in Mesoscopic Conductors

Theoretical and experimental work concerned with dynamic fluctuations has developed into a very active and fascinating subfield of mesoscopic physics. We present a review of this development focusing on shot noise in small electric conductors. Shot noise is a consequence of the quantization of charge. It can be used to obtain information on a system which is not available through conductance measurements. In particular, shot noise experiments can determine the charge and statistics of the quasiparticles relevant for transport, and reveal information on the potential profile and internal energy scales of mesoscopic systems. Shot noise is generally more sensitive to the effects of electron-electron interactions than the average conductance. We present a discussion based on the conceptually transparent scattering approach and on the classical Langevin and Boltzmann-Langevin methods; in addition a discussion of results which cannot be obtained by these methods is provided. We conclude the review by pointing out a number of unsolved problems and an outlook on the likely future development of the field.

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Semi-classical Theory of Conductance and Noise in Open Chaotic Cavities

Conductance and shot noise of an open cavity with diffusive boundary scattering are calculated within the Boltzmann-Langevin approach. In particular, conductance contains a non-universal geometric contribution, originating from the presence of open contacts. Subsequently, universal expressions for multi-terminal conductance and noise valid for all chaotic cavities are obtained classically basing on the fact that the distribution function in the cavity depends only on energy and using the principle of minimal correlations.

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Transition from Sub-Poissonian to Super-Poissonian Shot Noise in Resonant Quantum Wells

We investigate the transition from sub-Poissonian to super-Poissonian values of the zero-temperature shot noise power of a resonant double barrier of macroscopic cross-section. This transition occurs for driving voltages which are sufficiently strong to bring the system near an instability threshold. It is shown that interactions in combination with the energy dependence of the tunneling rates dramatically affect the noise level in such a system. Interaction-induced fluctuations of the band bottom of the well contribute to the noise and lead to a new energy in the Fano factor. They can enhance the noise to super-Poissonian values in a voltage range preceding the instability threshold of the system. At low voltages, interactions may either enhance or suppress the noise compared to the the non-interacting case.

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