Quantum Dots Attached to Ferromagnetic Leads: Exchange Field, Spin Precession, and Kondo Effect

Abstract

Spintronics devices rely on spin-dependent transport behavior evoked by the presence of spin-polarized electrons. Transport through nanostructures, on the other hand, is dominated by strong Coulomb interaction. We study a model system in the intersection of both fields, a quantum dot attached to ferromagnetic leads. The combination of spin-polarization in the leads and strong Coulomb interaction in the quantum dot gives rise to an exchange field acting on electron spins in the dot. Depending on the parameter regime, this exchange field is visible in the transport either via a precession of an accumulated dot spin or via an induced level splitting. We review the situation for various transport regimes, and discuss two of them in more detail.

20 pages, 6 figures, to be published in Lecture Notes in Physics

References in corpus (7)

• Kondo effect in quantum dots coupled to ferromagnetic leads
• A Quantum Dot in the Kondo Regime Coupled to Superconductors
• NRG study of the Kondo effect in the presence of itinerant-electron ferromagnetism
• Interaction-driven spin precession in quantum-dot spin valves
• Kondo effect in a quantum dot coupled to ferromagnetic leads: A numerical renormalization group analysis
• Nonequilibrium spintronic transport through an artificial Kondo impurity: Conductance, magnetoresistance and shot noise
• Spin-Dependent Transport Through An Interacting Quantum Dot

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Nanospintronics with carbon nanotubes
• Spin effects in single electron tunneling
• Kondo quantum dot coupled to ferromagnetic leads: Numerical renormalization group study
• Conductance plateau in quantum spin transport through an interacting quantum dot
• Compensation of the Kondo effect in quantum dots coupled to ferromagnetic leads within equation of motion approach
• Residual Kondo effect in quantum dot coupled to half-metallic ferromagnets