Coulomb blockade and Quantum Critical Points in Quantum Dots

Anders, Frithjof B.; Lebanon, Eran; Schiller, Avraham

Coulomb blockade and Quantum Critical Points in Quantum Dots

Authors

Anders, Frithjof B.

Lebanon, Eran

Schiller, Avraham

Description

An ultrasmall quantum dot coupled to a lead and to a quantum box (a large quantum dot) is investigated. Tuning the tunneling amplitudes to the lead and box, we find a line of unstable non-Fermi-liquid fixed points as function of the gate potentials of the quantum dots, extending to arbitrary charging energies on the small and large quantum dots. These quantum-critical fixed points possess a finite residual entropy. They govern the cross over from one Fermi-liquid regime to another, characterized by distinct (high and low) conductance values.
2 pages, 3 figures, Elsevier Science style