Two-orbital Kondo effect in a quantum dot coupled to ferromagnetic leads

Abstract

We study the Kondo effect of a two-orbital vertical quantum dot (QD) coupled to two ferromagnetic leads by employing an equation of motion method. When the ferromagnetic leads are coupled with parallel spin polarization, we find three peaks in the single-particle excitation spectra. The middle one is the Kondo resonance caused by the orbital degrees of freedom. In magnetic fields, the Kondo effect vanishes. However, at a certain magnetic field new twofold degenerate states arise and the Kondo effect emerges there. In contrast, when the ferromagnetic leads are coupled with antiparallel spin polarization, the Kondo effect caused by the spin (orbital) degrees of freedom survives (is suppressed) in magnetic fields. We investigate the field dependence of the conductance in the parallel and antiparallel spin polarizations of the leads and find that the conductance changes noticeably in magnetic fields.