Slave-boson Mean-field Approximation Research Articles

Topological behaviors in Kondo insulators

Since Kondo insulators are simultaneously subject to time-reversal symmetry and spatial antisymmetry, topological interactions exhibit topological Kondo insulating properties. To investigate the topological behaviors, we proposed a topologically interacting Kondo model with the slave-boson mean-field approximation in a square lattice ribbon. Different phases arise in different topological interactions and itinerant electron densities. In particular, the Kondo effect disappears at the edges in the Kondo and topological Kondo insulating phases. In the topological Kondo states, the conducting edge band is non-linear.

Low-energy physics for an iron phthalocyanine molecule on Au(111)

The system of an iron phthalocyanine molecule on the Au(111) surface has been studied recently due to its peculiar properties. In particular, several surprising results of scanning tunneling spectroscopy changing the position of the molecule and applying magnetic field can be explained by the non-Landau Fermi liquid state of a two-channel spin-1 Kondo model with anisotropy. The localized orbitals near the Fermi level are three, one of symmetry ${z}^{2}$ and two (nearly) degenerate $\ensuremath{\pi}$ orbitals of symmetry $xz$ and $yz$. Previous studies using the numerical renormalization group neglected one of these orbitals to render the problem tractable. Here we investigate, using a slave-boson mean-field approximation, if the splitting $S$ between $\ensuremath{\pi}$ orbitals caused by spin-orbit coupling (SOC) justifies this approximation. We obtain an abrupt transition from a three-band regime to a two-band one at a value of $S$, which is about 1/3 of the atomic SOC for Fe, justifying the two-band model for the system.

Impact of Kondo correlations and spin–orbit coupling on spin-polarized transport in carbon nanotube quantum dot

Spin polarized transport through a quantum dot coupled to ferromagnetic electrodes with noncollinear magnetizations is discussed in terms of nonequilibrium Green functions formalism in the finite-U slave boson mean field approximation. The difference of orientations of the magnetizations of electrodes opens off-diagonal spin–orbital transmission and apart from spin currents of longitudinal polarization also spin-flip currents appear. We also study equilibrium pure spin current at zero bias and discuss its dependence on magnetization orientation, spin–orbit coupling strength and gate voltage. Impact of these factors on tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) is also undertaken. In general spin–orbit coupling weakens TMR, but it can change its sign.

Modeling the Kondo effect of a magnetic atom adsorbed on graphene

The Kondo effect due to a magnetic atom adsorbed on graphene is investigated using two theoretical approaches, including the non-equilibrium Green’s function method within the slave-boson mean-field approximation and a newly developed tight-binding (TB) model with an effectively infinite Hubbard U term. Both methods reveal the presence of a Kondo peak in the local density of state (LDOS) of graphene near the Fermi level. A sharp Kondo peak is only observed in the odd-neighboring C sites of the C atom directly below the magnetic atom placed in top position. The peak intensity is found to decay quickly with respect to the distance between the C site and the magnetic atom. A theoretical model of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) of graphene is presented as a means to identify the manifestation of the Kondo effect via direct topographic STM measurements. STM simulations show that in the proximity of the magnetic atom, only the C atoms of one sublattice are visible at low bias potential and thus a triangular lattice can be seen, in agreement with recent experiments. Further away from the magnetic atom, the Kondo effect dies down and eventually both sublattices are visible, leading to the recovery of the hexagonal lattice. This work not only provides a new TB method to study the Kondo effect in graphene, but also presents both scanning tunneling spectroscopy and microscopy fingerprints of the Kondo effect to facilitate its experimental verification.

Numerical study of the Kondo cloud using finite-U slave bosons

In this work, using the finite-U slave boson mean-field approximation to solve the single-impurity Anderson model, the authors apply two different strategies to study the Kondo cloud, by analyzing quantities that are dependent on the distance to the magnetic impurity and then finding a universal distance scale ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{K}$ through the collapse of the results into an universal function. The first method is based on the analysis of the local density of states of the conduction electrons (denoted as ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{K}^{L})$, while the second relies on the analysis of spin correlations $({\ensuremath{\xi}}_{K}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}})$. Our calculations show that there is exact quantitative agreement, in the way ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{K}$ depends on $U/\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}$, between ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{K}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}}$ and the results obtained through the heuristic expression ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{K}\ensuremath{\propto}{v}_{F}/{T}_{K}$, while there is very close quantitative agreement between ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{K}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}}$ and ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{K}^{L}$. The use of the slave boson technique to calculate the spin correlations, which eliminates finite size effects, allowed us to study very large Kondo clouds, something that is very difficult using other techniques, like the density matrix renormalization Group method, for example. In addition, the very smooth curves obtained for the spin correlations allowed us to qualitatively identify a region in the Kondo cloud, adjacent to the impurity, that had been connected to the free orbital fixed point in previous numerical renormalization group calculations [Phys. Rev. B 84, 115120 (2011)].

Spin-polarized transport through a hybrid Majorana quantum dot system coupled ferromagnetic leads

By applying the slave-boson mean-field approximation to the highly correlated quantum dots (QDs), we investigate the spin polarized transport properties through serial two QDs coupled with Majorana bound states (MBSs) sandwiched between two ferromagnetic (FM) leads. We demonstrate the linear conductance and transmission properties which is dependent on the QD-MBS coupling strength and the spin polarization strength. We further discuss the exact up-and down-spin transmission properties in the parallel and anti-parallel configurations. We suggest that such a theoretical model can be used to study the physical phenomenon related to the spin manipulation transport in the hybrid Majorana quantum-dot systems.

Selective Kondo strong coupling in magnetic impurity flat-band lattices

The periodic Anderson impurity model on the Lieb lattice is studied by the slave-boson mean-field approximation in the strong interaction limit. The electron structure of conduction electrons on the Lieb lattice features both the band flatness and soft gap at low energy. With these features conduction electrons can form both the soft-gap and the molecular Kondo singlets with the magnetic impurities, and this leads to a competition between the soft-gap and the molecular Kondo effects in the lattice. We find a selective Kondo strong coupling, where at selected sites the magnetic impurities are strongly coupled to conduction electrons, and at the remaining sites they are decoupled from the lattice. The selective Kondo strong coupling occurs between the full local moment and the full strong coupling regimes, and it yields an effective lattice depletion. At low temperature the selection of the Kondo strong coupling is dominant at those lattice sites, where the local density of states of conduction electrons exhibits the flat-band feature, independently of the impurity parameters. Rich phase diagrams for different model parameters are obtained.

Two-stage three-channel Kondo physics for an FePc molecule on the Au(1 1 1) surface

We study an impurity Anderson model to describe an iron phthalocyanine (FePc) molecule on Au(1 1 1), motivated by previous results of scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) and theoretical studies. The model hybridizes a spin doublet consisting in one hole at the orbital of iron and two degenerate doublets corresponding to one hole either in the 3dxz or in the 3dyz orbital (called π orbitals) with two degenerate Hund-rule triplets with one hole in the 3dz orbital and another one in a π orbital. We solve the model using a slave-boson mean-field approximation (SBMFA). For reasonable parameters we can describe very well the observed STS spectrum between sample bias −60 mV to 20 mV. For these parameters the Kondo effect takes place in two stages, with different energy scales corresponding to the Kondo temperatures related with the hopping of the z2 and π orbitals respectively. There is a strong interference between the different channels and the Kondo temperatures, particularly the lowest one is strongly reduced compared with the value in the absence of the competing channel.

Topological phase transition from nodal to nodeless d-wave superconductivity in electron-doped cuprate superconductors

Unlike the hole-doped cuprates, both nodal and nodeless superconductivity (SC) are observed in the electron-doped cuprates. To understand these two types of SC states, we propose a unified theory by considering the two-dimensional model in proximity to an antiferromagnetic (AF) long-range ordering state. Within the slave-boson mean-field approximation, the d-wave pairing symmetry is still the most energetically favorable even in the presence of the external AF field. In the nodal phase, it is found that the nodes carry vorticity and are protected by the adjoint symmetry of time-reversal and one unit lattice translation. Robust edge modes are obtained, suggesting the nodal d-wave SC being a topological weak-pairing phase. As decreasing the doping concentration or increasing the AF field, the nodes with opposite vorticity annihilate and the nodeless strong-pairing phase emerges. The topological phase transition is characterized by a critical point with anisotropic Bogoliubov quasiparticles, and a universal understanding is thus established for all electron-doped cuprates.

On the nature of the Mott transition in multiorbital systems

We analyze the nature of Mott metal-insulator transition in multiorbital systems using dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT). The auxiliary multiorbital quantum impurity problem is solved using continuous time quantum Monte Carlo (CTQMC) and the rotationally invariant slave-boson (RISB) mean field approximation. We focus our analysis on the Kanamori Hamiltonian and find that there are two markedly different regimes determined by the nature of the lowest energy excitations of the atomic Hamiltonian. The RISB results at $T\to0$ suggest the following rule of thumb for the order of the transition at zero temperature: a second order transition is to be expected if the lowest lying excitations of the atomic Hamiltonian are charge excitations, while the transition tends to be first order if the lowest lying excitations are in the same charge sector as the atomic ground state. At finite temperatures the transition is first order and its strength, as measured e.g. by the jump in the quasiparticle weight at the transition, is stronger in the parameter regime where the RISB method predicts a first order transition at zero temperature. Interestingly, these results seem to apply to a wide variety of models and parameter regimes.

Controllable multiple-quantum transitions in a T-shaped small quantum dot-ring system

Based on the tight-binding model and the slave boson mean field approximation, we investigate the electron transport properties in a small quantum dot (QD)-ring system. Namely, a strongly correlated QD not only attaches directly to two normal metallic electrodes, but also forms a magnetic control Aharonov–Bohm quantum ring with a few noninteracting QDs. We show that the parity effect, the Kondo effect, and the multiple Fano effects coexist in our system. Moreover, the parities, defined by the odd- and even-numbered energy levels in this system, can be switched by adjusting magnetic flux phase ϕ located at the center of the quantum ring, which induces multiple controllable Fano-interference energy pathways. Therefore, the constructive and destructive multi-Fano interference transition, the Kondo and Fano resonance transition at the Fermi level, the Fano resonance and ani-resonance transition are realized in the even parity system. They can also be observed in the odd parity system when one adjusts the phase ϕ and the gate voltage Vg applied to the noninteracting QDs. The multi-quantum transitions determine some interesting transport properties such as the current switch and its multi-flatsteps, the differential conductance switch at zero bias voltage and its oscillation or quantization at the low bias voltage. These results may be useful for the observation of multiple quantum effect interplays experimentally and the design of controllable QD-based device.

Effect of spin-flip scattering on the electron transport through double quantum dots

We systematically investigate the electron transport through double quantum dots (DQD) with particular emphasis on the spin-flip scattering of an electron in the DQD. By means of the slave-boson mean-field approximation, we calculate the linear conductance and the transmission in the Kondo regime at zero temperature. The obtained results show that both the linear conductance and transmission probability are quite sensitive to the spin-flip strength when the DQD structure is changed among the serial, parallel and T-shaped. It is suggested that such a theoretical model can be used to study the physical phenomenon related to the spin manipulation transport.

Valence fluctuations in a lattice of magnetic molecules: Application to iron(II) phtalocyanine molecules on Au(111)

We study theoretically a square lattice of the organometallic Kondo adsorbate iron(II) phtalocyanine (FePc) deposited on top of Au(111), motivated by recent scanning tunneling microscopy experiments. We describe the system by means of an effective Hubbard-Anderson model, where each molecule has degenerate effective d-orbitals with xz and yz symmetry, which we solve for arbitrary occupation and arbitrary on-site repulsion U. To that end, we introduce a generalized slave-boson mean-field approximation (SBMFA) which correctly describes both the non-interacting limit (NIL) U = 0 and the strongly interacting limit , where our formalism reproduces the correct value of the Kondo temperature for an isolated FePc molecule. Our results indicate that while the isolated molecule can be described by an SU(4) Anderson model in the Kondo regime, the case of the square lattice corresponds to the intermediate-valence regime, with a total occupation of nearly 1.65 holes in the FePc molecular orbitals. Our results have important implications for the physical interpretation of the experiment.

Effects of the Antiferromagnetic Spin Coupling and Interdot Coulomb Repulsion on Kondo Effects in Serial Double Quantum Dots

We theoretically study the effects of the antiferromagnetic (AF) spin coupling and the interdot Coulomb repulsion on the Kondo effects in serial double quantum dots by means of the slave-boson mean-field approximation. Our results indicate that in the weak coupling regime, the AF spin coupling strengthens the Kondo resonance, while the interdot Coulomb repulsion suppresses them for the equilibrium case. In the non-equilibrium case, the AF spin coupling strengthens the Kondo resonance only when J > 2.5T0K, while the interdot Coulomb repulsion does not suppress Kondo peaks. In the strong coupling regime, the bias voltage has no effects on the Kondo resonance in this system, and the AF spin coupling increases the height of Kondo peaks only when J < 2.5T0K. However, the inter-dot Coulomb repulsion suppresses the spin Kondo effect, which induces the orbit Kondo effect. Moreover, the relevant underlying physics of these problems are discussed.

Magnetic flux tuning of Fano-Kondo interplay in a parallel double quantum dot system

We investigate the Fano-Kondo interplay in an Aharonov-Bohm ring with an embedded non-interacting quantum dot and a Coulomb interacting quantum dot. Using a slave-boson mean-field approximation we diagonalize the Hamiltonian via scattering matrix theory, and derive the conductance in the form of a Fano expression, which depends on the mean field parameters. We predict that in the Kondo regime the magnetic field leads to a gapped energy level spectrum due to hybridisation of the non-interacting QD state and the Kondo state, and can quantum-mechanically alter the electron's path preference. We demonstrate that an abrupt symmetry change in the Fano resonance, as seen experimentally, could be a consequence of an underlying Kondo channel.

Quantum impurity in the bulk of a topological insulator

We investigate physical properties of an Anderson impurity embedded in the bulk of a topological insulator. The slave-boson mean-field approximation is used to account for the strong electron correlation at the impurity. Different from the results of a quantum impurity on the surface of a topological insulator, we find for the band-inverted case, a Kondo resonant peak and in-gap bound states can be produced simultaneously. However, only one type of them appears for the normal case. It is shown that the mixed-valence regime is much broader in the band-inverted case, while it shrinks to a very narrow regime in the normal case. Furthermore, a self-screening of the Kondo effect may appear when the interaction between the bound-state spin and impurity spin is taken into account.

Transport properties of a two-impurity system: A theoretical approach

A system of two interacting cobalt atoms, at varying distances, was studied in a recent scanning tunneling microscope experiment by Bork et. al.[Nature Phys. 7, 901 (2011)]. We propose a microscopic model that explains, for all experimentally analyzed interatomic distances, the physics observed in these experiments. Our proposal is based on the two-impurity Anderson model, with the inclusion of a two-path geometry for charge transport. This many-body system is treated in the finite-U slave boson mean-field approximation and the logarithmic-discretization embedded-cluster approximation. We physically characterize the different charge transport regimes of this system at various interatomic distances and show that, as in the experiments, the features observed in the transport properties depend on the presence of two impurities but also on the existence of two conducting channels for electron transport. We interpret the splitting observed in the conductance as the result of the hybridization of the two Kondo resonances associated with each impurity.

Ginzburg–Landau Equations for Coexistent States of Superconductivity and Antiferromagnetism int–JModel

Ginzburg-Landau (GL) equations for the coexistent state of superconductivity and antiferromagnetism are derived microscopically from the t-J model with extended transfer integrals. GL equations and the GL free energy, which are obtained based on the slave-boson mean-field approximation, reflect the electronic structure of the microscopic model, especially the evolution of the Fermi surface due to the change of the doping rate. Thus they are suitable for studying the material dependence of the coexistent states in high-$T_C$ cuprate superconductors.

Mesoscopic Anderson box: Connecting weak to strong coupling

Both the weakly coupled and strong coupling Anderson impurity problems are characterized by a Fermi-liquid theory with weakly interacting quasiparticles. In an Anderson box, mesoscopic fluctuations of the effective single particle properties will be large. We study how the statistical fluctuations at low temperature in these two problems are connected, using random matrix theory and the slave boson mean field approximation (SBMFA). First, for a resonant level model such as results from the SBMFA, we find the joint distribution of energy levels with and without the resonant level present. Second, if only energy levels within the Kondo resonance are considered, the distributions of perturbed levels collapse to universal forms for both orthogonal and unitary ensembles for all values of the coupling. These universal curves are described well by a simple Wigner-surmise type toy model. Third, we study the fluctuations of the mean field parameters in the SBMFA, finding that they are small. Finally, the change in the intensity of an eigenfunction at an arbitrary point is studied, such as is relevant in conductance measurements: we find that the introduction of the strongly-coupled impurity considerably changes the wave function but that a substantial correlation remains.

Kondo temperature and screening extension in a double quantum dot system

In this work we use the Slave Boson Mean Field Approximation at finite U to study the effects of spin-spin correlations in the transport properties of two quantum dots coupled in series to metallic leads. Different quantum regimes of this system are studied in a wide range of parameter space. The main aspects related to the interplay between the half-filling Kondo effect and the antiferromagnetic correlation between the quantum dots are reviewed. Slave boson results for conductance, local density of states in the quantum dots, and the renormalized energy parameters, are presented. As a different approach to the Kondo physics in a double dot system, the Kondo cloud extension inside the metallic leads is calculated and its dependence with the inter-dot coupling is analyzed. In addition, the cloud extension permits the calculation of the Kondo temperature of the double quantum dot. This result is very similar to the corresponding critical temperature $T_c$, as a function of the parameters of the system, as obtained by using the finite temperature extension of the Slave Boson Mean Field Approximation.