Physical Review Letters -- April 26, 1999 -- Volume 82, Issue 17, pp. 3508-3511


Electronic Correlations in Transport through Coupled Quantum Dots

Antoine Georges1 and Yigal Meir2
1Laboratoire de Physique Théorique de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France
2Department of Physics, Ben-Gurion University, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel

(Received 23 November 1998)

The conductance through two quantum dots in series is studied using general qualitative arguments and quantitative slave-boson mean-field theory. It is demonstrated that measurements of the conductance can explore the phase diagram of the two-impurity Anderson model. Competition between the Kondo effect and the interdot magnetic exchange leads to a two-plateau structure in the conductance as a function to the gate voltage and a two or three peak structure in the conductance versus interdot tunneling.

PACS: 73.40.Gk, 72.15.Qm, 73.23.Hk


Full Text:


References

Online reference links ([online]) are linked to abstracts with enhanced features and may require a separate subscription. [SPIN] records are available with your current login. For more details, see Reference Information.

  1. D. Goldhaber-Gordon et al., Nature (London) 391, 156 (1998);  [INSPEC]
    D. Goldhaber-Gordon et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 5225 (1998).  [online] [SPIN]
  2. S. M. Cronenwett et al., Science 281, 540 (1998).  [INSPEC]
  3. For reviews on transport through quantum dots see, e.g., M. A. Kastner, Comments Condens. Matter Phys. 17, 349 (1996);  [INSPEC]
    R. Ashoori, Nature (London) 379, 413 (1996).  [INSPEC]
  4. L. I. Glazman and M. E. Raikh, Pis'ma Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 47, 378 (1998)  [INSPEC]
    [JETP Lett. 47, 452 (1988)];  [SPIN]
    T. K. Ng and P. A. Lee, Phys. Rev. Lett. 61, 1768 (1988).  [online] [SPIN]
  5. S. Hershfield, J. H. Davies, and J. W. Wilkins, Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, 3720 (1991);  [online] [SPIN]
    Y. Meir, N. S. Wingreen, and P. A. Lee, Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 2601 (1993);  [online] [SPIN]
    N. S. Wingreen and Y. Meir, Phys. Rev. B 49, 11 040 (1994).  [online] [SPIN]
  6. B. A. Jones, C. M. Varma, and J. W. Wilkins, Phys. Rev. Lett. 61, 125 (1988);  [online] [SPIN]
    B. A. Jones and C. M. Varma, Phys. Rev. B 40, 324 (1989);  [online] [SPIN]
    B. A. Jones, Physica (Amsterdam) 171B, 53 (1991).
  7. B. A. Jones, G. Kotliar, and A. J. Millis, Phys. Rev. B 39, 3415 (1989);  [online] [SPIN]
    A. J. Millis, G. Kotliar, and B. A. Jones, in Field Theoretic Methods in Condensed Matter Physics, edited by Z. Tesanovic (Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1990), p. 159.
  8. O. Sakai and Y. Shimizu, J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 61, 2333 (1992);
    61, 2348 (1992).
  9. I. Affleck and A. W. W. Ludwig, Phys. Rev. Lett. 68, 1046 (1992);  [online] [SPIN]
    I. Affleck, A. W. W. Ludwig, and B. A. Jones, Phys. Rev. B 52, 9528 (1995).  [online] [SPIN]
  10. U. Sivan et al., Europhys. Lett. 25, 605 (1994);  [INSPEC]
    F. R. Waugh et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 75, 705 (1995);  [online] [SPIN]
    Phys. Rev. B 53, 1413 (1996);  [online] [SPIN]
    N. C. Van der Waart et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 4702 (1995);  [INSPEC]
    F. Hofmann et al., Phys. Rev. B 51, 13 872 (1995);  [online] [SPIN]
    R. H. Blick et al., Phys. Rev. B 53, 7899 (1996).  [online] [SPIN]
  11. For recent experimental studies of a double-dot system, see, e.g., T. H. Oosterkam et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 4951 (1998);  [online] [SPIN]
    R. H. Blick et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 689 (1998).  [online] [SPIN]
  12. C. A. Stafford and N. S. Wingreen, Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 1916 (1996).  [online] [SPIN]
  13. G. M. Bryant, Phys. Rev. B 44, 3064 (1991);  [online] [SPIN]
    48, 8024 (1993);  [online] [SPIN]
    L. I. Glazman and V. Chandrasekhar, Europhys. Lett. 19, 623 (1992);  [INSPEC]
    I. M. Ruzin et al., Phys. Rev. B 45, 13 469 (1992);  [online] [SPIN]
    G. Klimeck, G. Chen, and S. Datta, Phys. Rev. B 50, 2316 (1994);  [online] [SPIN]
    G. Chen et al., Phys. Rev. B 50, 8035 (1994);  [online] [SPIN]
    J. J. Palacios and P. Hawrylak, Phys. Rev. B 51, 1769 (1995);  [online] [SPIN]
    J. M. Golden and B. I. Halperin, Phys. Rev. B 53, 3893 (1996);  [online] [SPIN]
    54, 16 757 (1996);  [online] [SPIN]
    56, 4716 (1997);  [online] [SPIN]
    K. A. Matveev, L. I. Glazman, and H. U. Baranger, Phys. Rev. B 53, 1034 (1996);  [online] [SPIN]
    54, 5637 (1996);  [online] [SPIN]
    P. Pals and A. Mackinon, J. Phys. Condens. Matter 8, 3177 (1996);  [INSPEC]
    8, 5401 (1996);  [INSPEC]
    R. Kotlyar and S. Das Sarma, Phys. Rev. B 56, 13 235 (1997);  [online] [SPIN]
    C. A. Stafford, R. Kotlyar, and S. Das Sarma, Phys. Rev. B 58, 7091 (1998);  [online] [SPIN]
    Y. Asano, Phys. Rev. B 58, 1414 (1998).  [online] [SPIN]
  14. However, for J > 8[radical Delta epsilon [sup 2]+t[sup 2]]/3 there will be a direct jump from N = 0 to N = 2. Since in practice J stems from superexchange between the dots, Jt2/U, the latter case may not be experimentally relevant, as it requires tU.
  15. T. Ivanov, Europhys. Lett. 40, 183 (1997);  [online] [INSPEC]
    T. Pohjola et al., ibid. 40, 189 (1997).  [online] [INSPEC]
  16. T. Aono, M. Eto, and K. Kawamura, J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 67, 1860 (1998).
  17. N. Andrei, G. T. Zimanyi, and G. Schön, cond-mat/9711098.  [LANL]
  18. K. Matveev, Sov. Phys. JETP 72, 892 (1991).  [SPIN]
  19. Y. Meir and N. Wingreen, Phys. Rev. Lett. 68, 2512 (1992).  [online] [SPIN]
  20. W. Izumida, O. Sakai, and Y. Shimizu, cond-mat/9805067.  [LANL]