Berry-phase effects in transport through single Jahn-Teller molecules

Abstract

The vibrational modes of Jahn-Teller molecules are affected by a Berry phase that is associated with a conical intersection of the adiabatic potentials. We investigate theoretically how this Berry phase affects transport through a single $E\otimes e$ Jahn-Teller molecule when the tunneling electrons continually switch the molecule between a symmetric and a Jahn-Teller distorted charge state. We find that the Berry phase in conjunction with a spectral trapping mechanism leads to a current blockade even in regions outside the Coulomb blockade. The blockade is strongly asymmetric in the gate voltage and induces pronounced negative differential conductance.

extended version

References in corpus (3)

• Franck-Condon blockade and giant Fano factors in transport through single molecules
• Vibrational sidebands and dissipative tunneling in molecular transistors
• Kondo resonances and anomalous gate dependence of electronic conduction in single-molecule transistors