Transport of interacting electrons through a double barrier in quantum wires

D. G. Polyakov and I. V. Gornyi
Phys. Rev. B 68, 035421 – Published 23 July 2003
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Abstract

We generalize the fermionic renormalization group method to analytically describe transport through a double barrier structure in a one-dimensional system. Focusing on the case of weakly interacting electrons, we investigate thoroughly the dependence of the conductance on the strength and the shape of the double barrier for arbitrary temperature T. Our approach allows us to systematically analyze the contributions to renormalized scattering amplitudes from different characteristic scales absent in the case of a single impurity, without restricting the consideration to the model of a single resonant level. Both a sequential resonant tunneling for high T and a resonant transmission for T smaller than the resonance width are studied within the unified treatment of transport through strong barriers. For weak barriers, we show that two different regimes are possible. Moderately weak impurities may get strong due to a renormalization by interacting electrons, so that transport is described in terms of theory for initially strong barriers. The renormalization of very weak impurities does not yield any peak in the transmission probability; however, remarkably, the interaction gives rise to a sharp peak in the conductance, provided the asymmetry is not too high.

  • Received 16 December 2002

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.68.035421

©2003 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

D. G. Polyakov1,* and I. V. Gornyi1,2,*

  • 1Institut für Nanotechnologie, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, 76021 Karlsruhe, Germany
  • 2Institut für Theorie der kondensierten Materie, Universität Karlsruhe, 76128 Karlsruhe, Germany

  • *Also at A.F. Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute, 194021 St. Petersburg, Russia.

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Vol. 68, Iss. 3 — 15 July 2003

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