Nonequilibrium conductance through a benzene molecule in the Kondo regime

TL;DR

This paper models the non-equilibrium conductance through a benzene molecule in the Kondo regime, revealing interference effects and conductance features depending on lead connection positions, using an effective Anderson Hamiltonian and Keldysh formalism.

Contribution

It derives a low-energy effective Hamiltonian for benzene in the Kondo regime and analyzes conductance features considering lead positions, including interference effects and finite-bias peaks.

Findings

Conductance peaks are reduced when leads are connected in para position.

Interference causes additional finite-bias peaks in differential conductance.

Model reproduces known properties for symmetric lead configurations.

Abstract

Starting from exact eigenstates for a symmetric ring, we derive a low-energy effective generalized Anderson Hamiltonian which contains two spin doublets with opposite momenta and a singlet for the neutral molecule. For benzene, the singlet (doublets) represent the ground state of the neutral (singly charged) molecule. We calculate the non-equilibrium conductance through a benzene molecule, doped with one electron or a hole (i.e. in the Kondo regime), and connected to two conducting leads at different positions. We solve the problem using the Keldysh formalism and the non-crossing approximation (NCA). When the leads are connected in the \emph{para} position (at 180 degrees), the model is equivalent to the ordinary impurity Anderson model and its known properties are recovered. For other positions, there is a partial destructive interference in the cotunneling processes involving the two doublets and as a consequence, the Kondo temperature and the height and width of the central peak (for bias voltage $V_b$ near zero) of the differential conductance $G=dI/dV_b$ (where $I$ is the current) are reduced. In addition, two peaks at finite $V_b$ appear. We study the position of these peaks, the temperature dependence of $G$ and the spectral densities. Our formalism can also be applied to carbon nanotube quantum dots with intervalley mixing.