Interference effects in the Coulomb blockade regime: current blocking and spin preparation in symmetric nanojunctions

We consider nanojunctions in the single-electron tunnelling regime which, due to a high degree of spatial symmetry, have a degenerate many body spectrum. As a consequence, interference phenomena which cause a current blocking can occur at specific values of the bias and gate voltage. We present here a general formalism to give necessary and sufficient conditions for interference blockade also in the presence of spin polarized leads. As an example we analyze a triple quantum dot single electron transistor (SET). For a set-up with parallel polarized leads, we show how to selectively prepare the system in each of the three states of an excited spin triplet without application of any external magnetic field.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures. Corrected typos and updated reference

Effects of spin-orbit coupling and many-body correlations in STM transport through copper phthalocyanine

The interplay of exchange correlations and spin-orbit interaction (SOI) on the many-body spectrum of a copper phtalocyanine (CuPc) molecule and their signatures in transport are investigated. We first derive a minimal model Hamiltonian in a basis of frontier orbitals which is able to reproduce experimentally observed singlet-triplet splittings; in a second step SOI effects are included perturbatively. Major consequences of the SOI are the splitting of former degenerate levels and a magnetic anisotropy, which can be captured by an effective low-energy spin Hamiltonian. We show that STM-based magnetoconductance measurements can yield clear signatures of both these SOI induced effects.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure

Shuttle instabilities: semiclassical phase analysis

We present a semiclassical analysis of the instability of an electron shuttle composed of three quantum dots: two are fixed and coupled via leads to electron resevoirs at different chemical potentials, while the central dot is mounted on a classical harmonic oscillator. The semiclassical analysis, which is valid if the central dot oscillation amplitude is larger than the quantum mechanical zero point motion, can be used to gain additional insight about the relationship of resonances and instabilities of the device.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, presented at EP2DS-15, Nara, July 200

Dynamical symmetry breaking in transport through molecules

We analyze the interplay between vibrational and electronic degrees of freedom in charge transport across a molecular single-electron transistor. We focus on the wide class of molecules which possess quasi-degenerate vibrational eigenstates, while no degeneracy occurs for their anionic configuration. We show that the combined effect of a thermal environment and coupling to leads, involving tunneling events charging and discharging the molecule, leads to a dynamical symmetry breaking where quasi-degenerate eigenstates acquire different occupations. This imbalance gives rise to a characteristic asymmetry of the current versus an applied gate voltage.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, revised final published versio

Quantum pumping in deformable quantum dots

The charge current pumped adiabatically through a deformable quantum dot is studied within the Green's function approach. Differently from the non-deformable case, the current shows an undefined parity with respect to the pumping phase \phi. The unconventional current-phase relation, analyzed in the weak pumping regime, is due to a dynamical phase shift \phi_D caused by the elastic deformations of the central region (classical phonons). The role of the quality factor Q of the oscillator, the effects induced by a mechanical resonance and the implications for current experiments on molecular systems are also discussed

Simple models suffice for the single dot quantum shuttle

A quantum shuttle is an archetypical nanoelectromechanical device, where the mechanical degree of freedom is quantized. Using a full-scale numerical solution of the generalized master equation describing the shuttle, we have recently shown [Novotn\'{y} {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 92}, 248302 (2004)] that for certain limits of the shuttle parameters one can distinguish three distinct charge transport mechanisms: (i) an incoherent tunneling regime, (ii) a shuttling regime, where the charge transport is synchronous with the mechanical motion, and (iii) a coexistence regime, where the device switches between the tunneling and shuttling regimes. While a study of the cross-over between these three regimes requires the full numerics, we show here that by identifying the appropriate time-scales it is possible to derive vastly simpler equations for each of the three regimes. The simplified equations allow a clear physical interpretation, are easily solved, and are in good agreement with the full numerics in their respective domains of validity.Comment: 23 pages, 14 figures, invited paper for the Focus issue of the New Journal of Physics on Nano-electromechanical system

Non-equilibrium spin-crossover in copper phthalocyanine

We demonstrate the tip induced control of the spin state of copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) on an insulator coated substrate. Accounting for electronic correlations, we find that, under the condition of energetic proximity of neutral excited states to the anionic groundstate, the system can undergo a population inversion towards these excited states. The resulting state of the system is accompanied by a change in the total spin quantum number. Experimental signatures of the crossover are the appearance of additional nodal planes in the topographical STM images as well as a strong suppression of the current near the center of the molecule. The robustness of the effect against moderate charge conserving relaxation processes has also been tested.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures; added supplemental material (+ 5 pages

Quantum Shuttle in Phase Space

We present a quantum theory of the shuttle instability in electronic transport through a nanostructure with a mechanical degree of freedom. A phase space formulation in terms of the Wigner function allows us to identify a cross-over from the tunnelling to the shuttling regime, thus extending the previously found classical results to the quantum domain. Further, a new dynamical regime is discovered, where the shuttling is driven exclusively by the quantum noise.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; minor changes; final version published in Phys. Rev. Let

Current and current fluctuations in quantum shuttles

We review the properties of electron shuttles, i.e. nanoelectromechanical devices that transport electrons one-by-one by utilizing a combination of electronic and mechanical degrees of freedom. We focus on the extreme quantum limit, where the mechanical motion is quantized. We introduce the main theoretical tools needed for the analysis, e.g. generalized master equations and Wigner functions, and we outline the methods how the resulting large numerical problems can be handled. Illustrative results are given for current, noise, and full counting statistics for a number of model systems. Throughout the review we focus on the physics behind the various approximations, and some simple examples are given to illustrate the theoretical concepts. We also comment on the experimental situation.Comment: Minireview; technical level aimed at general audience, based on an invited talk at "Transport Phenomena in Micro and Nanodevices", October 17-21 Kona, Hawai