Condensed Matter Theory

We study the competition between interference due to multiple single-particle paths and Coulomb interaction in a simple model of an Anderson-like impurity with local-magnetic-field-induced level splitting coupled to ferromagnetic leads. The model along with its potential experimental relevance in the field of spintronics serves as a nontrivial benchmark system where various quantum transport approaches can be tested and compared. We present results for the linear conductance obtained by a spin-dependent implementation of the density matrix renormalization group scheme which are compared with a mean-field solution as well as a seemingly more advanced Hubbard-I approximation. We explain why mean-field yields nearly perfect results, while the more sophisticated Hubbard-I approach fails, even at a purely conceptual level since it breaks hermiticity of the related density matrix. Furthermore, we study finite bias transport through the impurity by the mean-field approach and recently developed higher-order density matrix equations. We find that the mean-field solution fails to describe the plausible results of the higher-order density matrix approach both quantitatively and qualitatively as it does not capture some essential features of the current-voltage characteristics such as negative differential conductance.

Strong repulsive interactions within a one dimensional Fermi system in a two-probe configuration normally lead to a reduced off-resonance conductance. We show that if the repulsive interaction extends to the contact regions, a strong increase of the conductance may occur, even for systems where one would expect to find a reduced conductance. An essential ingredient in our calculations is a momentum-space representation of the leads, which allows a high energy resolution. Further, we demonstrate that these results are independent of the high-energy cutoff and that the relevant scale is set by the Fermi velocity.

In this paper we present a novel approach combining linear response theory (Kubo) for the conductance and the Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG). The system considered is one-dimensional and consists of non-interacting tight binding leads coupled to an interacting nanostructure via weak links. Electrons are treated as spinless fermions and two different correlation functions are used to evaluate the conductance. Exact diagonalization calculations in the non-interacting limit serve as a benchmark for our combined Kubo and DMRG approach in this limit. Including both weak and strong interaction we present DMRG results for an extended nanostructure consisting of seven sites. For the strongly interacting structure a simple explanation of the position of the resonances is given in terms of hard-core particles moving freely on a lattice of reduced size.

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Dan Bohr, Dr.