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

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Cited by in corpus (10)

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• Effect of nonadiabatic electronic-vibrational interactions on the transport properties of single-molecule junctions
• Interaction-induced negative differential resistance in asymmetric molecular junctions
• Transport signature of pseudo-Jahn-Teller dynamics in a single-molecule transistor
• Quantum transport through single-molecule junctions with orbital degeneracies
• Vibrationally dependent electron-electron interactions in resonant electron transport through single-molecule junctions
• Continuous vibronic symmetries in Jahn-Teller models