Article

# Absorption and Emission in quantum dots: Fermi surface effects of Anderson excitons

Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapeŝto, Budapest, Hungary
(Impact Factor: 3.74). 03/2005; 72(12). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.72.125301
Source: arXiv

ABSTRACT

Recent experiments measuring the emission of exciton recombination in a self-organized single quantum dot (QD) have revealed that novel effects occur when the wetting layer surrounding the QD becomes filled with electrons, because the resulting Fermi sea can hybridize with the local electron levels on the dot. Motivated by these experiments, we study an extended Anderson model, which describes a local conduction band level coupled to a Fermi sea, but also includes a local valence band level. We are interested, in particular, on how many-body correlations resulting from the presence of the Fermi sea affect the absorption and emission spectra. Using Wilson's numerical renormalization group method, we calculate the zero-temperature absorption (emission) spectrum of a QD which starts from (ends up in) a strongly correlated Kondo ground state. We predict two features: Firstly, we find that the spectrum shows a power law divergence close to the threshold, with an exponent that can be understood by analogy to the well-known X-ray edge absorption problem. Secondly, the threshold energy $\omega_0$ - below which no photon is absorbed (above which no photon is emitted) - shows a marked, monotonic shift as a function of the exciton binding energy $U_{\rm exc}$

### Full-text

Available from: László Borda, May 08, 2015
• Source
• "For T FR ≪ ν ≪ T K , the absorption lineshape of the X − transition is expected to show an analogous power-law singularity. The exponent η is predicted [23] [24] to range between 0 and 0.5 (assuming no magnetic field), with η ≃ 0.5 being characteristic for a Kondo-correlated initial state and an uncorrelated final state. This lineshape modification is a consequence of a redistribution of the optical oscillator strength, associated with the fact that the FR wave-function in the Kondo correlated initial state has finite overlap with a range of final states consisting of electron-hole pair excitations out of a non-interacting FR. "
##### Article: Quantum quench of Kondo correlations in optical absorption
[Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: The interaction between a single confined spin and the spins of an electron reservoir leads to one of the most remarkable phenomena of many-body physics--the Kondo effect. Electronic transport measurements on single artificial atoms, or quantum dots, have made it possible to study the effect in great detail. Here we report optical measurements on a single semiconductor quantum dot tunnel-coupled to a degenerate electron gas which show that absorption of a single photon leads to an abrupt change in the system Hamiltonian and a quantum quench of Kondo correlations. By inferring the characteristic power-law exponents from the experimental absorption line shapes, we find a unique signature of the quench in the form of an Anderson orthogonality catastrophe, induced by a vanishing overlap between the initial and final many-body wavefunctions. We show that the power-law exponent that determines the degree of orthogonality can be tuned using an external magnetic field, which unequivocally demonstrates that the observed absorption line shape originates from Kondo correlations. Our experiments demonstrate that optical measurements on single artificial atoms offer new perspectives on many-body phenomena previously studied using transport spectroscopy only.
Preview · Article · Jun 2011 · Nature
• Source
• "These can be used to evaluate equilibrium spectral functions via their Lehmann-representations; at finite temperatures, this can be done using the full density matrix (FDM)-NRG[19]. Since Eq. (2) expresses the Fermi golden rule absorption rate via a Lehmann representation, it, too, can be evaluated using NRG[11]. However, it contains matrix elements between initial and final states that are eigenstates of different Hamiltonians, H i and H f . "
##### Article: Shedding light on non-equilibrium dynamics of a spin coupled to fermionic reservoir
[Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: A single confined spin interacting with a solid-state environment has emerged as one of the fundamental paradigms of mesoscopic physics. In contrast to standard quantum optical systems, decoherence that stems from these interactions can in general not be treated using the Born-Markov approximation at low temperatures. Here we study the non-equilibrium dynamics of a single-spin in a semiconductor quantum dot adjacent to a fermionic reservoir and show how the dynamics can be revealed in detail in an optical absorption experiment. We show that the highly asymmetrical optical absorption lineshape of the resulting Kondo exciton consists of three distinct frequency domains, corresponding to short, intermediate and long times after the initial excitation, which are in turn described by the three fixed points of the single-impurity Anderson Hamiltonian. The zero-temperature power-law singularity dominating the lineshape is linked to dynamically generated Kondo correlations in the photo-excited state. We show that this power-law singularity is tunable with gate voltage and magnetic field, and universal. Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures
Preview · Article · Jul 2009
• Source
##### Article: Matrix product state calculations for one-dimensional quantum chains and quantum impurity models

Preview · Article ·