Research

December 10, 2016 at 10:45 am

Ulloa Authors ‘Magnetic-field-induced Mixed-level Kondo Effect in Two-Level System’

Ddr. Sergio Ulloa

Dr. Sergio Ulloa

Dr. Sergio Ulloa, Professor of Physics & Astronomy at Ohio University, co-authored an article in Physical Review B on “Magnetic-field-induced mixed-level Kondo effect in two-level systems.”

His co-authors are Arturo Wong of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and Anh T. Ngo of Argonne National Laboratory.

Abstract: We consider a two-orbital impurity system with intra- and interlevel Coulomb repulsion that is coupled to a single conduction channel. This situation can generically occur in multilevel quantum dots or in systems of coupled quantum dots. For finite energy spacing between spin-degenerate orbitals, an in-plane magnetic field drives the system from a local-singlet ground state to a “mixed-level” Kondo regime, where the Zeeman-split levels are degenerate for opposite-spin states. We use the numerical renormalization group approach to fully characterize this mixed-level Kondo state and discuss its properties in terms of the applied Zeeman field, temperature, and system parameters. Under suitable conditions, the total spectral function is shown to develop a Fermi-level resonance, so that the linear conductance of the system peaks at a finite Zeeman field while it decreases as a function of temperature. These features, as well as the local moment and entropy contribution of the impurity system, are commensurate with Kondo physics, which can be studied in suitably tuned quantum dot systems.

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