Spin effects in single electron tunneling

Abstract

An important consequence of the discovery of giant magnetoresistance in metallic magnetic multilayers is a broad interest in spin dependent effects in electronic transport through magnetic nanostructures. An example of such systems are tunnel junctions -- single-barrier planar junctions or more complex ones. In this review we present and discuss recent theoretical results on electron and spin transport through ferromagnetic mesoscopic junctions including two or more barriers. Such systems are also called ferromagnetic single-electron transistors. We start from the situation when the central part of a device has the form of a magnetic (or nonmagnetic) metallic nanoparticle. Transport characteristics reveal then single-electron charging effects, including the Coulomb staircase, Coulomb blockade, and Coulomb oscillations. Single-electron ferromagnetic transistors based on semiconductor quantum dots and large molecules (especially carbon nanotubes) are also considered. The main emphasis is placed on the spin effects due to spin-dependent tunnelling through the barriers, which gives rise to spin accumulation and tunnel magnetoresistance. Spin effects also occur in the current-voltage characteristics, (differential) conductance, shot noise, and others. Transport characteristics in the two limiting situations of weak and strong coupling are of particular interest. In the former case we distinguish between the sequential tunnelling and cotunneling regimes. In the strong coupling regime we concentrate on the Kondo phenomenon, which in the case of transport through quantum dots or molecules leads to an enhanced conductance and to a pronounced zero-bias Kondo peak in the differential conductance.

topical review (36 figures, 65 pages), to be published in J. Phys.: Condens. Matter

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Cited by in corpus (27)

• Spin effects in transport through single-molecule magnets in the sequential and cotunneling regimes
• Spin-resolved Andreev transport through double-quantum-dot Cooper pair splitters
• Electronic waiting-time distribution of a quantum-dot spin valve
• Proximity effect on spin-dependent conductance and thermopower of correlated quantum dots
• Negative tunnel magnetoresistance and differential conductance in transport through double quantum dots
• Superconducting proximity effect and zero-bias anomaly in transport through quantum dots weakly attached to ferromagnetic leads
• Perfect spin polarization in T-shaped double quantum dots due to the spin-dependent Fano effect
• The Influence of Magnetic Anisotropy on the Kondo Effect and Spin-Polarized Transport through Magnetic Molecules, Adatoms and Quantum Dots
• The SU(4) Kondo effect in double quantum dots with ferromagnetic leads
• Electrically controlled quantum dot based spin current injector
• Transport across a carbon nanotube quantum dot contacted with ferromagnetic leads: experiment and non-perturbative modeling
• Direct Evidence for Suppression of the Kondo Effect due to Pure Spin Current
• Spin-dependent transport through quantum-dot Aharonov-Bohm interferometers
• What can we learn about the dynamics of transported spins by measuring shot noise in spin-orbit-coupled nanostructures?
• Large voltage-tunable spin valve based on a double quantum dot
• Temperature dependence of electronic transport through molecular magnets in the Kondo regime
• Nonequilibrium spintronic transport through Kondo impurities
• Asymmetry-induced effects in Kondo quantum dots coupled to ferromagnetic leads
• Theory of transport through noncollinear single-electron spin-valve transistors
• Dark states in spin-polarized transport through triple quantum dot molecules
• Anisotropic magneto-Coulomb effect versus spin accumulation in a ferromagnetic single-electron device
• The tunnel magnetoresistance in chains of quantum dots weakly coupled to external leads
• A tool to estimate the critical dynamics and thickness of superconducting films and interfaces
• Tunnel magnetoresistance of a supramolecular spin valve
• Encoding information onto the charge and spin state of a paramagnetic atom using MgO tunnelling spintronics
• Double island Coulomb blockade in (Ga,Mn)As-nanoconstrictions
• Current fluctuations of noncollinear single-electron spin-valve transistors