Climbing the Entropy Barrier: Driving the Single- towards the Multichannel Kondo Effect by a Weak Coulomb Blockade of the Leads

S. Florens and A. Rosch
Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 216601 – Published 26 May 2004

Abstract

We study a model proposed recently in which a small quantum dot is coupled symmetrically to several large quantum dots characterized by a charging energy Ec. Even if Ec is much smaller than the Kondo temperature TK, the long-ranged interactions destabilize the single-channel Kondo effect and induce a flow towards a multichannel Kondo fixed point associated with a rise of the impurity entropy with decreasing temperature. Such an “uphill flow” implies a negative impurity specific heat, in contrast with all systems with local interactions. An exact solution found for a large number of channels allows us to capture this physics and to predict transport properties.

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  • Received 12 November 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.216601

©2004 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

S. Florens1 and A. Rosch1,2

  • 1Institut für Theorie der Kondensierten Materie, Universität Karlsruhe, 76128 Karlsruhe, Germany
  • 2Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität zu Köln, 50937 Köln, Germany

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Vol. 92, Iss. 21 — 28 May 2004

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