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Published in

IOP Publishing, New Journal of Physics, 2(11), p. 023031, 2009

DOI: 10.1088/1367-2630/11/2/023031

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Electron-electron interaction effects in quantum point contacts

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

We consider electron-electron interaction effects in quantum point contacts on the first quantization plateau, taking into account all scattering processes. We compute the low-temperature linear and nonlinear conductance, shot noise, and thermopower, by perturbation theory and a self-consistent nonperturbative method. On the conductance plateau, the low-temperature corrections are solely due to momentum-nonconserving processes that change the relative number of left- and right-moving electrons. This leads to a suppression of the conductance for increasing temperature or voltage. The size of the suppression is estimated for a realistic saddle-point potential, and is largest in the beginning of the conductance plateau. For large magnetic field, interaction effects are strongly suppressed by the Pauli principle, and hence the first spin-split conductance plateau has a much weaker interaction correction. For the nonperturbative calculations, we use a self-consistent nonequilibrium Green's function approach, which suggests that the conductance saturates at elevated temperatures. These results are consistent with many experimental observations related to the so-called 0.7 anomaly. ; Comment: 29 pages, New Journal of Physics, in press