Blocking transport resonances via Kondo many-body entanglement in quantum dots

Kondo effects in small-bandgap carbon nanotube quantum dots

We study the magnetoconductance of small-bandgap carbon nanotube quantum dots in the presence of spin-orbit coupling in the strong-correlations regime. A finite-U slave-boson mean-field approach is used to study many-body effects. Different degeneracies are restored in a magnetic field and Kondo effects of different symmetries arise, including SU(3) effects of different types. Full spin-orbital degeneracy might be recovered at zero field and, correspondingly, the SU(4) Kondo effect sets in. We point out the possibility of the occurrence of electron-hole Kondo effects in slanting magnetic fields, which we predict to occur in magnetic fields with an orientation close to perpendicular. When the field approaches a transverse orientation a crossover from SU(2) or SU(3) symmetry into SU(4) is observed.

Fabry-Pérot Oscillations in Correlated Carbon Nanotubes

We report the observation of an intriguing behavior in the transport properties of nanodevices operating in a regime between the Fabry-Pérot and the Kondo limits. Using ultrahigh quality nanotube devices, we study how the conductance oscillates when sweeping the gate voltage. Surprisingly, we observe a fourfold enhancement of the oscillation period upon decreasing temperature, signaling a crossover from single-electron tunneling to Fabry-Pérot interference. These results suggest that the Fabry-Pérot interference occurs in a regime where electrons are correlated. The link between the measured correlated Fabry-Pérot oscillations and the SU(4) Kondo effect is discussed.

Shaping Electron Wave Functions in a Carbon Nanotube with a Parallel Magnetic Field

A magnetic field, through its vector potential, usually causes measurable changes in the electron wave function only in the direction transverse to the field. Here, we demonstrate experimentally and theoretically that, in carbon nanotube quantum dots combining cylindrical topology and bipartite hexagonal lattice, a magnetic field along the nanotube axis impacts also the longitudinal profile of the electronic states. With the high (up to 17 T) magnetic fields in our experiment, the wave functions can be tuned all the way from a "half-wave resonator" shape with nodes at both ends to a "quarter-wave resonator" shape with an antinode at one end. This in turn causes a distinct dependence of the conductance on the magnetic field. Our results demonstrate a new strategy for the control of wave functions using magnetic fields in quantum systems with a nontrivial lattice and topology.

Nanomechanical Characterization of the Kondo Charge Dynamics in a Carbon Nanotube

Using the transversal vibration resonance of a suspended carbon nanotube as a charge detector for its embedded quantum dot, we investigate the case of strong Kondo correlations between a quantum dot and its leads. We demonstrate that even when large Kondo conductance is carried at odd electron number, the charging behavior remains similar between odd and even quantum dot occupations. While the Kondo conductance is caused by higher order processes, a sequential tunneling only model can describe the time-averaged charge. The gate potentials of the maximum current and fastest charge increase display a characteristic relative shift, which is suppressed at increased temperature. These observations agree very well with models for Kondo-correlated quantum dots.