Universal Fermi liquid crossover and quantum criticality in a mesoscopic device

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a universal crossover from quantum critical non-Fermi liquid behavior to Fermi liquid states in a controllable quantum dot device, supported by numerical calculations, revealing fundamental insights into quantum phase transitions.

Contribution

It provides experimental and numerical evidence of a universal crossover in a quantum dot, elucidating the microscopic origins of quantum criticality and Fermi liquid behavior.

Findings

Observation of non-Fermi liquid to Fermi liquid crossover

Quadratic dependence of crossover scale T* on gate voltage

Validation of an exact theoretical description of the crossover

Abstract

Quantum critical systems derive their finite temperature properties from the influence of a zero temperature quantum phase transition. The paradigm is essential for understanding unconventional high-Tc superconductors and the non-Fermi liquid properties of heavy fermion compounds. However, the microscopic origins of quantum phase transitions in complex materials are often debated. Here we demonstrate experimentally, with support from numerical renormalization group calculations, a universal crossover from quantum critical non-Fermi liquid behavior to distinct Fermi liquid ground states in a highly controllable quantum dot device. Our device realizes the non-Fermi liquid two-channel Kondo state, based on a spin-1/2 impurity exchange-coupled equally to two independent electronic reservoirs. Arbitrarily small detuning of the exchange couplings results in conventional screening of the spin by the more strongly coupled channel for energies below a Fermi liquid scale T*. We extract a quadratic dependence of T* on gate voltage close to criticality and validate an asymptotically exact description of the universal crossover between strongly correlated non-Fermi liquid and Fermi liquid states.