Sonja Koller

Publications (6)0 Total impact

• Source

  Available from: Andrea Donarini

  Article: Dynamical symmetry breaking in vibration-assisted transport through nanostructures

  Abdullah Yar, Andrea Donarini, Sonja Koller, Milena Grifoni
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  ABSTRACT: A theoretical model of a single molecule coupled to many vibronic modes is presented. At low energies, transport is dominated by electron-vibron processes where transfer of an electron through the dot is accompanied by the excitation/emission of quanta (vibrons). Because the frequency of the $n$th mode is taken as an $n$th multiple of the frequency of the fundamental mode, several energetically degenerate or quasi-degenerate vibronic configurations can contribute to transport. We investigate the consequences of strong electron-vibron coupling in a fully \emph{symmetric} set-up. Several striking features are predicted. In particular, a gate-asymmetry and pronounced negative differential conductance features are observed. We attribute these features to the presence of slow channels originating from the interplay of Franck-Condon suppression of transport channels and spin/orbital degeneracies.
  01/2011;
• Source

  Available from: ArXiv

  Article: Inelastic cotunneling in quantum dots and molecules with weakly broken degeneracies

  Georg Begemann, Sonja Koller, Milena Grifoni, Jens Paaske
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  ABSTRACT: We calculate the nonlinear cotunneling conductance through interacting quantum dot systems in the deep Coulomb blockade regime using a rate equation approach based on the T-matrix formalism, which shows in the concerned regions very good agreement with a generalized master equation approach. Our focus is on inelastic cotunneling in systems with weakly broken degeneracies, such as complex quantum dots or molecules. We find for these systems a characteristic gate dependence of the non-equilibrium cotunneling conductance. While on one side of a Coulomb diamond the conductance decreases after the inelastic cotunneling threshold towards its saturation value, on the other side it increases monotonously even after the threshold. We show that this behavior originates from an asymmetric gate voltage dependence of the effective cotunneling amplitudes.
  03/2010;
• Source

  Available from: ArXiv

  Article: Exchange effects in spin polarized transport through carbon nanotube quantum dots

  Christoph Schenke, Sonja Koller, Leonhard Mayrhofer, Milena Grifoni
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  ABSTRACT: We investigate linear and nonlinear transport across single-walled carbon nanotube quantum dots weakly coupled to spin-polarized leads. We consider tubes of finite length and small diameter, where not only forward scattering contributions of the Coulomb potential, but also short-ranged processes play an important role. In particular, they induce exchange effects leading for electron fillings 4n+2 either to a non-degenerate groundstate of spin S=0 or to a triplet groundstate. In the linear regime we present analytical results for the conductance - for both the S=0 and the triplet groundstate - and demonstrate that an external magnetic field is crucial to reveal the spin nature of the groundstates. In the nonlinear regime we show stability diagrams that clearly distinguish between the different groundstates. We observe a negative differential conductance (NDC) effect in the S=0 groundstate for antiparallel lead magnetization. In presence of an external magnetic field spin blockade effects can be detected, again leading to NDC effects for both groundstates. Comment: 13 pages, 15 figures, 2 tables; revised published version
  03/2009;
• Source

  Available from: Andrea Donarini

  Article: Transport through a double quantum dot system with non-collinearly polarized leads

  Ralph Peter Hornberger, Sonja Koller, Georg Begemann, Andrea Donarini, Milena Grifoni
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  ABSTRACT: We investigate linear and non-linear transport in a double quantum dot system weakly coupled to spin-polarized leads. In the linear regime, the conductance as well as the non-equilibrium spin accumulation are evaluated in analytic form. The conductance as a function of the gate voltage exhibits four peaks of different height, with mirror symmetry with respect to the charge neutrality point. As the polarization angle is varied, the position and shape of the peaks changes in a characteristic way which preserves the electron-hole symmetry of the problem. In the nonlinear regime negative differential conductance features occur for non collinear magnetisations of the leads. In the considered sequential tunneling limit, the tunneling magneto resistance (TMR) is always positive with a characteristic gate voltage dependence for non-collinear magnetization. If a magnetic field is added to the system, the TMR can become negative.
  01/2008;
• Source

  Available from: arxiv.org

  Article: Spin transport across carbon nanotube quantum dots

  Sonja Koller, Leonhard Mayrhofer, Milena Grifoni
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  ABSTRACT: We investigate linear and nonlinear transport in interacting single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) that are weakly attached to ferromagnetic leads. For the reduced density matrix of a SWCNT quantum dot, equations of motion which account for an arbitrarily vectored polarisation of the contacts are derived. We focus on the case of large diameter nanotubes where exchange effects emerging from short-ranged processes can be excluded and the four-electron periodicity at low bias can be observed. This yields in principle four distinct resonant tunnelling regimes, but due to symmetries in the involved groundstates, each two possess a mirror-symmetry. With a non-collinear configuration, we recover at the 4N <-> 4N+1 / 4N+3 <-> 4N resonances the analytical results known for the angular dependence of the conductance of a single level quantum dot or a metallic island. The two other cases are treated numerically and show on the first glance similar, yet not analytically describable dependences. In the nonlinear regime, negative differential conductance features occur for non-collinear lead magnetisations.
  04/2007;
• Article: Sources of negative tunneling magnetoresistance in multilevel quantum dots with ferromagnetic contacts

  Sonja Koller, Milena Grifoni, Jens Paaske
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  ABSTRACT: We analyze distinct sources of spin-dependent energy level shifts and their impact on the tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) of interacting quantum dots coupled to collinearly polarized ferromagnetic leads. Level shifts due to virtual charge fluctuations can be quantitatively evaluated within a diagrammatic representation of our transport theory. The theory is valid for multilevel quantum dot systems and we exemplarily apply it to carbon nanotube quantum dots, where we show that the presence of many levels, among them of excited states, can qualitatively influence the TMR effect.
  Phys. Rev. B. 85(4).