Decoherence of the Kondo Singlet Caused by Phase-sensitive Detection

TL;DR

This paper studies how phase-sensitive detection in an Aharonov-Bohm interferometer causes dephasing of the Kondo singlet, revealing suppression of the Kondo resonance and explaining experimental anomalies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method using connected Green functions to analyze Kondo singlet dephasing beyond the Lacroix approximation.

Findings

Kondo resonance is suppressed by phase-sensitive detection.

The method explains anomalous experimental features.

Provides qualitative agreement with recent experimental observations.

Abstract

We investigate the dephasing effect of the Kondo singlet in an Aharonov-Bohm interferometer with a quantum dot coupling to left and right electrodes. By employing the cluster expansions, the equations of motion of Green functions are transformed into the corresponding equation of motion of connected Green functions, which contains the correlation of two conduction electrons beyond the Lacroix approximation. With the method we show that the Kondo resonance is suppressed by phase-sensitive detection of Aharonov-Bohm interferometer. Our numerical results have provided a qualitative explanation with the anomalous features observed in a recent experiment by Avinun-Kalish \emph{et al}. [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{92}, 156801 (2004)].