Phase transition and charge transport through a triple dot device beyond the Kondo regime

Semiconductor quantum dot structure provides a promising basis for quantum information processing, within which to reveal the quantum phase and charge transport is one of the most important issues. In this paper, by means of the numerical renormalization group technique, we study the quantum phase transition and the charge transport for a parallel triple dot device in the strongly correlated limit, focusing on the effect of inter-dot hopping t beyond the Kondo regime. We find the quantum behaviors depend closely on the initial electron number on the dots, and the present model may map to single,double, and side-coupled impurity models in different parameter spaces. An orbital spin-1/2 Kondo effect between the conduction leads and the bonding orbital, and several magnetic-frustration phases are demonstrated when t is adjusted to different regimes. To understand these phenomena, a canonical transformation of the energy levels is given, and important physical quantities with respect to increasing t and necessary theoretical discussions are shown.     

Charge oscillation and many-body effect in triangular quantum dots

We study the charge oscillation in the triangular quantum dots symmetrically coupled to the leads.A strong charge oscillation is observed even for a very small level difference.We attribute this oscillation behaviour to the manybody effect in the strongly correlated system instead of the physical scenarios based on the mean-field approach in the previous works for the two-level dot.The level difference induces the difference of the occupations between different dots,while the symmetry of the many-body states favours the homogeneous distribution of the charge density on the three dots.The interplay of these two factors results in the charge oscillation.     

Quantum phase transition and Coulomb blockade effect in triangular quantum dots with interdot capacitive and tunnel couplings

The quantum phase transition and the electronic transport in a triangular quantum dot system are investigated using the numerical renormalization group method.We concentrate on the interplay between the interdot capacitive coupling V and the interdot tunnel coupling t.For small t,three dots form a local spin doublet.As t increases,due to the competition between V and t,there exist two first-order transitions with phase sequence spin-doublet-magnetic frustration phase-orbital spin singlet.When t is absent,the evolutions of the total charge on the dots and the linear conductance are of the typical Coulomb-blockade features with increasing gate voltage.While for sufficient t,the antiferromagnetic spin correlation between dots is enhanced,and the conductance is strongly suppressed for the bonding state is almost doubly occupied.     

Kosterlitz–Thouless transition,spectral property and magnetic moment for a two-dot structure with level difference

By means of the numerical renormalization group method, we study the phase transition, the spectral property, and the temperature-dependent magnetic moment for a parallel double dot system with level difference, where the dot energies are kept symmetric to the half-filled level. A Kosterlitz–Thouless(KT) transition between local spin triplet and singlet is found. In the triplet regime, the local spin is partially screened by the conduction leads and spin-1 Kondo effect is realized.While for the singlet, the Kondo peak is strongly suppressed and the magnetic moment decreases to 0 at a definite low temperature. We attribute this KT transition to the breaking of the reflection symmetry, resulting from the difference of the charge occupations of the two dots. To understand this KT transition and related critical phenomena, detailed scenarios are given in the transmission coefficient and the magnetic moment, and an effective Kondo model refers to the RayleighSchrdinger perturbation theory is used.     

Voltage-controlled Kosterlitz–Thouless transitions and various kinds of Kondo behaviors in a triple dot device

The transport property and phase transition for a parallel triple dot device are studied by adopting Wilson's numerical renormalization group technique, focusing on the effects of level spacings between neighboring dot sites. By keeping dot 2at the half-filled level and tuning the level differences, it is demonstrated that the system transits from local spin quadruplet to triplet and doublet sequently, and three kinds of Kondo peaks at the Fermi surface could be found, which are separated by two Kosterlitz–Thouless type quantum phase transitions and correspond to spin-3/2, spin-1, and spin-1/2 Kondo effect,respectively. To obtain a detailed understanding of these problems, the charge occupation, the spin–spin correlation, the transmission coefficient, and the temperature-dependent magnetic moment are shown, and necessary physical arguments are given.