Abstract
We investigate the low-temperature dynamics of single electron boxes and transistors close to their degeneracy point using renormalization-group methods. We show that intermode scattering is a relevant perturbation and always drives the system to the two-channel Kondo fixed point, where the two channels correspond to the real spins of the conduction electrons. However, the crossover temperature below which Matveev’s two-channel Kondo scenario [K.A. Matveev, Phys. Rev. B 51, 1743 (1995)] develops decreases exponentially with the number of conduction modes in the tunneling junctions and is extremely small in most cases. Above the “infinite channel model” of G. Falci, G. Schön, and G.T. Zimany, Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 3257 (1995) turns out to be a rather good approximation. We discuss the experimental limitations and suggest an experimental setup to observe the multichannel Kondo behavior.
- Received 1 March 2000
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.62.8137
©2000 American Physical Society