Interplay of the Kondo effect with the induced pairing in electronic and caloric properties of T-shaped double quantum dots

TL;DR

This paper investigates how superconducting proximity effects influence the Kondo phenomena and transport properties in T-shaped double quantum dots, revealing complex interactions between pairing correlations and magnetic screening.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the interplay between the Kondo effect and induced pairing in quantum dots, using numerical renormalization group methods in the large superconducting gap limit.

Findings

Superconducting proximity can suppress or enhance the two-stage Kondo screening.

Spin-filtering effects are fragile to induced pairing.

Effective Coulomb interaction reduction explains many observed phenomena.

Abstract

We examine the influence of the superconducting proximity effect on the transport properties of a T-shaped double quantum dot strongly coupled to two normal, nonmagnetic or ferromagnetic leads. We show that the two-stage Kondo screening may be suppressed or enhanced by the presence of pairing correlations, depending on the specific geometric arrangement of the device. We explain our results by invoking effective decrease of Coulomb interactions by proximity effect and find qualitatively correct description in many cases, although spin-filtering effect stemming from spin-dependent Fano-Kondo interference occurs to be surprisingly fragile to the presence of induced pairing. The results are obtained within the numerical renormalization group framework in the limit of large superconducting gap, which allows for a reliable examination of the low-temperature sub-gap properties of the considered system. Nevertheless, finite temperature effects are also taken into account.