Abstract
A simple device of three laterally coupled quantum dots, the central one contacted by metal leads, provides a realization of the ferromagnetic Kondo model, which is characterized by interesting properties like a nonanalytic inverted zero-bias anomaly and an extreme sensitivity to a magnetic field. Tuning the gate voltages of the lateral dots allows us to study the transition from a ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic Kondo effect, a simple case of a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. We model the device by three coupled Anderson impurities that we study by numerical renormalization group. We calculate the single-particle spectral function of the central dot, which at zero frequency is proportional to the zero-bias conductance, across the transition, both in the absence and in the presence of a magnetic field.
- Received 5 February 2013
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.047201
© 2013 American Physical Society