Enhanced photon-assisted spin transport in a quantum dot attached to ferromagnetic leads

TL;DR

This paper studies how a periodically modulated quantum dot with ferromagnetic leads can enhance and control spin-polarized electron transport through photon-assisted tunneling, revealing spin-dependent effects and negative tunnel magnetoresistance.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of photon-assisted spin transport in a quantum dot with ferromagnetic leads, highlighting the control of spin currents via gate modulation and magnetic alignment.

Findings

Photon-assisted channels enable spin-polarized tunneling.

Spin-dependent current peaks vary with gate frequency.

Negative tunnel magnetoresistance observed due to photon effects.

Abstract

We investigate real-time dynamics of spin-polarized current in a quantum dot coupled to ferromagnetic leads in both parallel and antiparallel alignments. While an external bias voltage is taken constant in time, a gate terminal, capacitively coupled to the quantum dot, introduces a periodic modulation of the dot level. Using non equilibrium Green's function technique we find that spin polarized electrons can tunnel through the system via additional photon-assisted transmission channels. Owing to a Zeeman splitting of the dot level, it is possible to select a particular spin component to be photon-transfered from the left to the right terminal, with spin dependent current peaks arising at different gate frequencies. The ferromagnetic electrodes enhance or suppress the spin transport depending upon the leads magnetization alignment. The tunnel magnetoresistance also attains negative values due to a photon-assisted inversion of the spin-valve effect.