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# Current Characteristics of the Single-Electron Transistor at the Degeneracy Point

## I Introduction

The single-electron transistor — a small metallic or semiconducting quantum box connected to two separate leads — is among the basic elements of mesoscopic devices. Due to the finite energy barrier for charging the box with a single electron, the so-called Coulomb blockade,  charge inside the box is nearly quantized at low temperatures for weak tunneling between the box and the leads. As a result, transport through the box is strongly suppressed unless the two lowest lying charge configurations in the box are tuned to be degenerate. As a function of gate voltage, the conductance thus shows a sequence of narrow peaks, each corresponding to the crossing of the ground state from $`n`$ to $`n+1`$ excess electrons inside the box.

At the degeneracy points, the system is subject to strong charge fluctuations. The corresponding low-energy physics is governed by the non-Fermi-liquid fixed point of the multichannel Kondo effect,  where the two degenerate charge configurations in the box play the role of the impurity spin. Which multichannel Kondo effect is realized depends on microscopic details such as the number of transverse modes in the junctions, and the nature of electron transport inside the box. Two opposing scenarios were considered to date for the single-electron transistor, distinguished by whether or not electrons can propagate coherently between the two tunnel junctions. Focusing on wide tunnel junctions, König et al considered the case where electrons can propagate coherently between the two leads (see also Refs.  and ). Extending the work Grabert  to nonequilibrium transport, these authors analyzed in detail all second-order contributions to the current in the dimensionless tunneling conductance, obtaining good agreement with experiment.  However, based on perturbation theory, this approach breaks down near the degeneracy points, where transport is governed at low temperature by the strong electronic correlations of the multichannel Kondo effect.

An alternative scenario was considered by Furusaki and Matveev,  and later by Zaránd et al and Le Hur and Seelig.  Noting that elastic cotunneling is strongly suppressed at temperatures above the level spacing,  these authors omitted altogether coherent electron transport between the leads, by coupling each lead to independent conduction-electron modes within the box. For symmetric single-mode junctions, the resulting low-temperature physics is governed at the degeneracy point by the four-channel Kondo effect,  in contrast to the two-channel Kondo effect that takes place when electrons can propagate coherently between the leads. Any asymmetry in the coupling to the two leads drives the system away from the four-channel fixed point to a two-channel fixed point, where one lead is decoupled from the box. Consequently, the zero-temperature conductance vanishes, as shown by Furusaki and Matveev in the limit of both a large asymmetry and strong tunneling to one lead  (i.e., a nearly open tunneling mode). A quantitative description of the temperature and asymmetry dependence of the conductance in this case remains lacking.

Despite considerable efforts,  the understanding of the low-temperature transport at the degeneracy points is far from complete for either scenario. For weak single-mode tunnel junctions, there is no quantitative theory for the temperature dependence of the conductance in the Kondo regime, while the nonequilibrium differential conductance is practically unexplored in this regime for either scenario.  The goal of this paper is to provide a detailed analysis of the linear and nonlinear transport at resonance, for weak single-mode tunnel junctions. Both scenarios where electrons either can or cannot propagate coherently between the two junctions are considered. Our aim is to provide a host of signatures that can be used to experimentally discern the two pictures, and to detect which multichannel Kondo effect is realized in actual systems.

To this end, we employ the noncrossing approximation  (NCA). The NCA is a self-consistent perturbation theory about the atomic limit. Originally designed to study dilute magnetic alloys, this approach was successfully applied to the out-of-equilibrium Kondo effect both for the single-channel  and two-channel  Anderson impurity model. Recently, the NCA was generalized to the multichannel Kondo spin Hamiltonian with arbitrary spin-exchange and potential-scattering couplings.  Similar to the NCA formulation of the multichannel Anderson model,  the Kondo-NCA (KNCA) correctly describes the low-energy physics of the multichannel Kondo model, reproducing the exact non-Fermi-liquid power laws and logarithms of the multichannel Kondo effect. This should be contrasted with the single-channel case, where the NCA (and KNCA) fails to describe the Fermi-liquid fixed point.  Here we extend the KNCA approach to the nonequilibrium case, and apply it to the single-electron transistor.

Using the KNCA, we find that a zero-bias anomaly develops in the current characteristics of the single-electron transistor, featuring the anomalous power laws of the corresponding multichannel Kondo effect. The latter power laws are manifest in the temperature and voltage dependences of the low-temperature, low-bias differential conductance. Similar to the case of two-channel Kondo scattering off nonmagnetic two-level tunneling systems,  these power laws are best revealed in a scaling plot of the differential conductance versus $`eV/k_BT`$, with $`V`$ being the applied voltage bias. Such scaling plots are proposed as a distinct experimental signature of the appropriate multichannel Kondo effect. In the absence of electron propagation between the two leads, a crossover from four-channel to two-channel behavior is found in the differential conductance for asymmetric couplings, in accordance with the picture of Furusaki and Matveev.

The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. In sec. II we present the single-electron transistor, and discuss the two alternative models under consideration. The nonequilibrium KNCA is then formulated in sec. III, followed by the derivation of the current in sec. IV. Our results for the linear and nonlinear transport are presented in sec. V, and discuss in sec. VI.

## II The single-electron transistor

### A Basic model

The physical system under consideration is shown schematically in Fig. 1. A metallic island, or quantum box, is connected by narrow point contacts to two separate leads, a left lead ($`L`$) and a right lead ($`R`$). A drain-source voltage bias is applied across the device, which sets a chemical-potential difference between the leads: $`\mu _L\mu _R=eV`$. Here $`e`$ is the electron charge. Modeling each lead by $`N`$ noninteracting one-dimensional conduction modes, the Hamiltonian of the two independent leads reads

$$_{leads}=\underset{\alpha =L,R}{}\underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}\underset{k,\sigma }{}(ϵ_{\alpha kn}+\mu _\alpha )c_{\alpha kn\sigma }^{}c_{\alpha kn\sigma },$$
(1)
where $`c_{\alpha kn\sigma }^{}`$ creates a conduction electron with wave number $`k`$ and spin projection $`\sigma `$ in the $`n`$th mode of lead $`\alpha `$, and $`ϵ_{\alpha kn}`$ are the corresponding single-particle energies, measured relative to the chemical potential on that lead.

For the quantum box, one has to consider also its charging energy. Setting the Fermi energy of the box as our reference energy for the single-particle levels inside the box, the excess number of electrons on the metallic island is described by the operator

$$\widehat{N}_B=\underset{m=1}{\overset{M}{}}\underset{q,\sigma }{}\left[c_{Bqm\sigma }^{}c_{Bqm\sigma }\theta (ϵ_{Bqm})\right].$$
(2)
Here, similar to our notation for the leads, $`c_{Bqm\sigma }^{}`$ creates an electron with wave number $`q`$ and spin projection $`\sigma `$ in the $`m`$th mode of the box ($`M`$ independent conductance modes are taken within the box), and $`ϵ_{Bqm}`$ are the corresponding single-particle levels. The latter levels are assumed to be sufficiently dense such that a continuum-limit description can be used. The Hamiltonian of the isolated box is thus given by

$$_{box}=\underset{m=1}{\overset{M}{}}\underset{q,\sigma }{}ϵ_{Bqm}c_{Bqm\sigma }^{}c_{Bqm\sigma }+E_C\left(\widehat{N}_BN_C\right)^2,$$
(3)
where $`E_C`$ is the charging energy of the box, and $`N_C`$ is the classical number of excess electrons inside the box. These two quantities are related to the capacitances of the gate and of the left and right junctions through $`E_C=e^2/2(C_g+C_L+C_R)`$ and $`N_C=(C_gV_g+C_LV_L+C_RV_R)/e`$, where $`V_g`$, $`V_L`$, and $`V_R`$ are the voltages applied to the gate and to the left and right leads, respectively (see Fig. 1).

The quantum box is coupled to the leads by weak tunneling, described by the tunneling Hamiltonian

$$_{tunnel}=\underset{\alpha =L,R}{}\underset{n,m}{}\underset{k,q,\sigma }{}t_{nm}^\alpha \{c_{\alpha kn\sigma }^{}c_{Bqm\sigma }+\mathrm{H}.\mathrm{c}.\}.$$
(4)
For simplicity, both the $`k`$ and $`q`$ dependences of the tunneling matrix elements $`t_{nm}^L`$ and $`t_{nm}^R`$ have been neglected in Eq. (4). The full Hamiltonian of the system reads $`=_{leads}+_{box}+_{tunnel}`$.

### B Mapping onto the multichannel Kondo problem

Our objective is a detailed quantitative description of the linear and nonlinear transport at resonance, when two neighboring charge configurations are degenerate within the box. To this end, let us focus on the vicinity of a particular degeneracy point, $`N_C=n+\frac{1}{2}`$ with $`n`$ an integer, separating the $`\widehat{N}_B=n`$ and $`\widehat{N}_B=n+1`$ charge configurations.

As emphasized by Matveev,  the low-temperature, low-bias physics is governed at resonance by the intermediate-coupling fixed point of the multichannel Kondo effect. To formulate the connection between the two problems, we proceed along the lines laid out by Matveev.  Labeling the deviation from the degeneracy point by $`\delta N=N_Cn\frac{1}{2}`$, we concentrate on $`|\delta N|1`$ and $`e|V|,k_BTe^2/C_B`$, such that all charge configurations in the box other than $`\widehat{N}_B=n`$ and $`\widehat{N}_B=n+1`$ are energetically inaccessible. One can formally remove all higher energy charge configurations in the box by means of two projection operators, $`P_n`$ and $`P_{n+1}`$, which project onto the $`\widehat{N}_B=n`$ and $`\widehat{N}_B=n+1`$ subspaces, respectively. Alternatively, one can carry out the projection onto the low-energy subspace by introducing a spin-$`\frac{1}{2}`$ isospin operator $`\stackrel{}{S}`$, and identifying

$`P_{n+1}P_n`$ $``$ $`2S_z,`$ (5)
$`P_nc_{Bqm\sigma }P_{n+1}`$ $``$ $`c_{Bqm\sigma }S^{},`$ (6)
$`P_{n+1}c_{Bqm\sigma }^{}P_n`$ $``$ $`c_{Bqm\sigma }^{}S^+.`$ (7)
Omitting an $`E_C`$-dependent reference energy, the resulting low-energy Hamiltonian reads

$`_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha =L,R}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{k,n,\sigma }{}}(ϵ_{\alpha kn}+\mu _\alpha )c_{\alpha kn\sigma }^{}c_{\alpha kn\sigma }`$ (8)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{q,m,\sigma }{}}ϵ_{Bqm}c_{Bqm\sigma }^{}c_{Bqm\sigma }2E_C\delta NS_z`$ (9)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha =L,R}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{k,q,n,m,\sigma }{}}\{t_{nm}^\alpha c_{\alpha kn\sigma }^{}c_{Bqm\sigma }S^{}+\mathrm{H}.\mathrm{c}.\}.`$ (10)
Strictly speaking, Eqs. (5)–(10) are subject to the constraint $`\widehat{N}_BS_z=n+1/2`$, reflecting the fact that the isospin $`\stackrel{}{S}`$ and the conduction-electron operators $`c_{Bqm\sigma }^{}`$ are not independent degrees of freedom. However, since the isospin dynamics in the Hamiltonian of Eq. (10) is not sensitive to the precise number of conduction electrons inside the quantum box, this constraint can be conveniently relaxed. We therefore regard hereafter the isospin $`\stackrel{}{S}`$ and the $`c_{Bqm\sigma }^{}`$ operators as independent.

The Hamiltonian of Eq. (10) has the form of a planner multichannel Kondo Hamiltonian. Here $`h=2E_C\delta N`$ plays the role of a magnetic field, while the equivalence of the two spin orientations guarantees the existence of at least two identical conduction-electron channels. The total number of independent conduction-electron channels depends, however, on the microscopic details of the $`t_{nm}^\alpha `$ tunneling matrix elements. In this paper we consider two particular scenarios, corresponding to the two- and four-channel planner Kondo Hamiltonian.

### C Coherent propagation versus no coherent propagation between the two junctions

For sufficiently narrow point contacts, only a single mode weakly couples each lead to the quantum box. Focusing on this case, we consider two different scenarios: one by which both leads couple to the same single mode within the box, and the other whereby each lead is coupled to a different mode within the box.

The former scenario is just a single-mode version of the model of König et al.,  whereby electrons can propagate coherently between the two leads. Its corresponding low-energy effective Hamiltonian is obtained by setting $`N=M=1`$ in Eqs. (1)–(4), thus omitting the mode indices $`n`$ and $`m`$. The resulting Hamiltonian takes the form

$`_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha =L,R}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{k,\sigma }{}}(ϵ_{\alpha k}+\mu _\alpha )c_{\alpha k\sigma }^{}c_{\alpha k\sigma }+{\displaystyle \underset{q,\sigma }{}}ϵ_{Bq}c_{Bq\sigma }^{}c_{Bq\sigma }`$ (11)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha =L,R}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{k,q,\sigma }{}}t_\alpha \{c_{\alpha k\sigma }^{}c_{Bq\sigma }S^{}+\mathrm{H}.\mathrm{c}.\}hS_z,`$ (12)
where $`t_{nm}^Lt_L`$ and $`t_{nm}^Rt_R`$ (both taken to be real) are the tunneling matrix elements for the left and right junctions, respectively.

The second scenario is a straightforward adaptation to weak single-mode tunnel junctions of the model introduced by Furusaki and Matveev,  and later used by Zaránd et al and by Le Hur and Seelig.  In this model, electron propagation between the two leads is excluded from the outset, accounting thereby for the strong suppression of elastic cotunneling at temperatures above the level spacing.  The corresponding low-energy effective Hamiltonian is obtained from Eqs. (1)–(4) by setting $`N=1`$ and $`M=2`$, and taking $`t_{1m}^Lt_L\delta _{m,1}`$ and $`t_{1m}^Rt_R\delta _{m,2}`$. Converting for convenience from the channel labels $`m=1`$ and $`m=2`$ within the box to $`\alpha =L`$ and $`\alpha =R`$, respectively, the resulting Hamiltonian is given by

$`_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha =L,R}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{k,\sigma }{}}(ϵ_{\alpha k}+\mu _\alpha )c_{\alpha k\sigma }^{}c_{\alpha k\sigma }`$ (13)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha =L,R}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{q,\sigma }{}}ϵ_{Bq\alpha }c_{Bq\alpha \sigma }^{}c_{Bq\alpha \sigma }hS_z`$ (14)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha =L,R}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{k,q,\sigma }{}}t_\alpha \{c_{\alpha k\sigma }^{}c_{Bq\alpha \sigma }S^{}+\mathrm{H}.\mathrm{c}.\}.`$ (15)
As in Eq. (12), the effective magnetic field $`h`$ is equal to $`2E_C\delta N`$.

#### 1 Coherent propagation between the leads

The Hamiltonian of Eq. (12) is equivalent in equilibrium to the planner two-channel Kondo Hamiltonian in an applied magnetic field. This is best seen by first converting to a constant-energy-shell representation of the conduction-electron creation and annihilation operators in each of the two leads and the quantum box, and then constructing generalized “bonding” and “anti-bonding” combinations of the two leads. Upon doing so the “anti-bonding” band decouples from the isospin $`\stackrel{}{S}`$, while the “bonding” band plays the role of the single lead in Matveev’s original mapping onto the planner two-channel Kondo Hamiltonian.  At the degeneracy point, the capacitance of the single-electron transistor diverges logarithmically with decreasing temperature according to $`C(1/T_K)\mathrm{log}(T_K/T)`$, where $`T_K`$ is the two-channel Kondo temperature:

$$k_BT_K=\left(D\sqrt{g_L+g_R}\right)\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{\pi }{4\sqrt{g_L+g_R}}\right].$$
(16)
Here $`D2E_C`$ is the effective conduction-electron bandwidth,

$$g_\alpha =\rho _\alpha (0)\rho _B(0)t_\alpha ^2$$
(17)
($`\alpha =L,R`$) are the dimensionless tunneling conductances for the left and right junctions, and

$$\rho _\gamma (ϵ)=\underset{k}{}\delta (ϵϵ_{\gamma k})$$
(18)
are the underlying density of states ($`\gamma =L,R`$, or $`B`$). Throughout this paper we use the notation by which the argument of $`\rho _\gamma (ϵ)`$ is measured relative to the corresponding chemical potential, i.e., $`\mu _L`$ and $`\mu _R`$ for $`\gamma =L`$ and $`R`$, respectively, and $`\mu _B=0`$ for $`\gamma =B`$.

Away from equilibrium, it is still possible to construct “bonding” and “anti-bonding” combinations of the left and right leads, yet one can no longer dismiss the “anti-bonding” degrees of freedom as irrelevant. While the latter degrees of freedom remain decoupled from the isospin $`\stackrel{}{S}`$ on the level of the Hamiltonian, they do couple to $`\stackrel{}{S}`$ through the effective density matrix, which assigns different chemical potentials to the right and left leads. Hence both the “bonding” and “anti-bonding” combinations must be retained when computing the current for a finite bias.

#### 2 No coherent propagation between the leads

Contrary to the Hamiltonian of Eq. (12), the Hamiltonian of Eq. (15) corresponds in equilibrium to the planner four-channel Kondo Hamiltonian with channel anisotropy. Specifically, there are two distinct pairs of equivalent channels, one pair for each tunnel junction. A channel-isotropic four-channel Kondo Hamiltonian is recovered only for equal tunneling conductances for the left and right junctions, $`g_L=g_R`$. The latter conductances are given by

$$g_\alpha =\rho _\alpha (0)\rho _{B\alpha }(0)t_\alpha ^2$$
(19)
($`\alpha =L,R`$), which differ from the expressions of Eq. (17) only in the separate density of states for the left and right modes within the quantum box:

$$\rho _{B\alpha }(ϵ)=\underset{k}{}\delta (ϵϵ_{Bk\alpha }).$$
(20)
For $`g_L=g_R=g`$, the low-energy physics of the transistor is governed by the non-Fermi-liquid fixed point of the four-channel Kondo effect. The corresponding Kondo temperature is given by

$$k_BT_K=(Dg)\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{\pi }{4\sqrt{g}}\right],$$
(21)
where $`D2E_C`$. Note that the exponent of Eq. (21) differs by a factor of $`\sqrt{2}`$ from that of Eq. (16) under the same condition that $`g_L=g_R=g`$. Any asymmetry in the left and right tunneling conductances, $`g_Lg_R`$, drives the system to a two-channel fixed point with one of the leads effectively decoupled from the box.

## III Noncrossing approximation

To obtain a reliable quantitative theory for the low-temperature transport at resonance for each of the models of Eqs. (12) and (15), we resort to a recent adaptation of the noncrossing approximation (NCA) to the Kondo spin Hamiltonian with arbitrary spin-exchange and potential-scattering couplings.  In this section, we formulate the Kondo-NCA (KNCA) for each of the models of Eqs. (12) and (15), generalizing the KNCA to nonequilibrium.

### A Slave-fermion representation

To handle the isospin $`\stackrel{}{S}`$, which we refer to hereafter as the impurity spin, we employ Abrikosov’s slave-fermion representation.  In this representation, one assigns a pseudo fermion to each impurity spin state according to

$`f_+^{}|0`$ $``$ $`|S_z=+1/2,`$ (22)
$`f_{}^{}|0`$ $``$ $`|S_z=1/2.`$ (23)
This assignment corresponds to the replacement of the impurity spin operator by the bilinear pseudo-fermion operator

$$\stackrel{}{S}\frac{1}{2}\underset{\gamma \delta }{}f_\gamma ^{}\stackrel{}{\sigma }_{\gamma \delta }f_\delta ,$$
(24)
where $`\stackrel{}{\sigma }`$ are the Pauli matrices. The physical subspace corresponds to the constraint $`\widehat{N}_f=_\gamma f_\gamma ^{}f_\gamma =1`$, which represents the fact that we are working within an enlarged Hilbert space. This constraint distinguishes the pseudo fermions from ordinary fermions.

The advantage of the slave-fermion representation stems from the ability to use standard diagrammatic many-body techniques to calculate physical observables. The difficulty lies in implementing the constraint, which necessitates the introduction of a fictitious “chemical potential” $`\lambda `$ for the pseudo fermions. The latter is taken to minus infinity at the end of the calculation, as described below. For concreteness, let us focus in the following on the case where coherent propagation is allowed between the two junctions, i.e., the Hamiltonian of Eq. (12). The necessary modifications for the model of Eq. (15) are detailed in Appendix A.

In conventional perturbation theory for a nonequilibrium problem, one starts with an unperturbed system in equilibrium. All processes that drive the system out of equilibrium are then switched on adiabatically at some initial time $`t_0`$. For the problem at hand, one starts with two decoupled leads, each with its own chemical potential. The unperturbed Hamiltonian $`_0`$ thus lacks the exchange term, and is given by

$`_0`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha =L,R}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{k,\sigma }{}}(ϵ_{\alpha k}+\mu _\alpha )c_{\alpha k\sigma }^{}c_{\alpha k\sigma }`$ (25)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{q,\sigma }{}}ϵ_{Bq}c_{Bq\sigma }^{}c_{Bq\sigma }+{\displaystyle \underset{\gamma =\pm }{}}(ϵ_\gamma \lambda )f_\gamma ^{}f_\gamma .`$ (26)
Here $`ϵ_\gamma `$ is equal to $`\gamma \frac{1}{2}h`$, while $`\lambda `$ is a fictitious chemical potential for the pseudo particles. Note that $`_0`$ is bilinear and diagonal in the single-particle operators $`c_{\alpha k\sigma }^{}`$ and $`f_\gamma ^{}`$, which makes it a suitable starting point for diagrammatic calculations. The initial density matrix of the system is also diagonal in the above single-particle operators, and has the form

$$\widehat{\rho }_0=\frac{e^{\beta (_0\mu _LN_L\mu _RN_R)}}{\mathrm{Tr}\left\{e^{\beta (_0\mu _LN_L\mu _RN_R)}\right\}}.$$
(27)
Due to the chemical potential $`\lambda `$ that was added to $`_0`$, the statistical weight of the $`\widehat{N}_f=m`$ subspace has an extra factor of $`e^{\beta \lambda m}`$ in Eq. (27). This allows one to project out the $`\widehat{N}_f=1`$, physical subspace. Specifically, the average of any physical observable $`\widehat{O}`$ can be expressed as

$$\widehat{O}_{\mathrm{phys}}=\frac{1}{Z_{\mathrm{imp}}}\underset{\lambda \mathrm{}}{lim}e^{\beta \lambda }\widehat{O}\widehat{N}_f_\lambda ,$$
(28)
where

$$Z_{\mathrm{imp}}=\underset{\lambda \mathrm{}}{lim}e^{\beta \lambda }\widehat{N}_f_\lambda .$$
(29)
Here subscripts $`\lambda `$ denote averages with respect to the enlarged Hilbert space. Since the $`\widehat{N}_f=0`$ subspace does not contribute to the averages of Eqs. (28) and (29) (other than through the normalization of $`\widehat{\rho }_0`$), then the leading-order terms in $`e^{\beta \lambda }`$ come from the $`\widehat{N}_f=1`$, physical subspace. The latter terms are the only ones to survive the $`\lambda \mathrm{}`$ limit. Note that, in practice, one can drop the $`\widehat{N}_f`$ operator from the average of Eq. (28) for those physical operators $`\widehat{O}`$ that give zero when acting on the $`\widehat{N}_f=0`$ subspace, which greatly simplifies the calculations. We also note that $`Z_{\mathrm{imp}}`$ corresponds in equilibrium to the “impurity contribution” to the partition function (see, e.g., Ref. ).

At $`t_0`$, the tunneling terms are switched on adiabatically, and the system evolves according to the full Hamiltonian: $`_0+_{tun}`$ with

$$_{tun}=\underset{\alpha =L,R}{}\underset{k,q,\sigma }{}t_\alpha \{c_{\alpha k\sigma }^{}c_{Bq\sigma }f_{}^{}f_++\mathrm{H}.\mathrm{c}.\}.$$
(30)
After all transients have decayed, a new nonequilibrium steady-state is reached, characterized by time-independent averages of physical observables such as the current operator. Within the enlarged Hilbert space, the steady-state average of such an operator $`\widehat{O}`$ at time $`t=0`$ is given by

$$\widehat{O}_\lambda =\underset{t_0\mathrm{}}{lim}\mathrm{Tr}\left\{\widehat{\rho }_0\widehat{U}^{}(0,t_0)\widehat{O}\widehat{U}(0,t_0)\right\},$$
(31)
where $`\widehat{U}`$ is the time-evolution operator corresponding to the full Hamiltonian. Projection onto the physical subspace is carried out according to Eq. (28).

### B Noncrossing approximation

The key ingredients for the calculation of physical observables are the pseudo-fermion Green functions. These include the retarded and advanced Green functions,

$`G_\gamma ^{r(\lambda )}(t,t^{})`$ $`=`$ $`i\theta (tt^{})\{f_\gamma (t),f_\gamma ^{}(t^{})\}_\lambda ,`$ (32)
$`G_\gamma ^{a(\lambda )}(t,t^{})`$ $`=`$ $`i\theta (t^{}t)\{f_\gamma (t),f_\gamma ^{}(t^{})\}_\lambda ,`$ (33)
along with the lesser and greater Green functions,

$`G_\gamma ^{<(\lambda )}(t,t^{})`$ $`=`$ $`f_\gamma ^{}(t^{})f_\gamma (t)_\lambda ,`$ (34)
$`G_\gamma ^{>(\lambda )}(t,t^{})`$ $`=`$ $`f_\gamma (t)f_\gamma ^{}(t^{})_\lambda .`$ (35)
Here curly brackets denote the anticommutator, and $`\gamma =\pm `$. Once steady state is reached, the above Green functions regain time-translational invariance, and are solely dependent on the time difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }t=tt^{}`$. It is therefore advantageous to switch over to the energy domain, by introducing the Fourier transforms with respect to $`\mathrm{\Delta }t/\mathrm{}`$. In equilibrium, the lesser Green function is simply equal to the spectral part of the retarded Green function times $`2\pi f(ϵ)`$, where $`f(ϵ)`$ is the Fermi-Dirac distribution function. Away from equilibrium, when the effective distribution function is not known, both the retarded and lesser Green functions are explicitly needed in order to compute physical observables.

In practice, the pseudo-fermion Green functions enter the calculation of physical observables in their projected forms, which read

$`G_\gamma ^r(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`\underset{\lambda \mathrm{}}{lim}G_\gamma ^{r(\lambda )}(ϵ\lambda ),`$ (36)
$`G_\gamma ^a(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`\underset{\lambda \mathrm{}}{lim}G_\gamma ^{a(\lambda )}(ϵ\lambda ),`$ (37)
$`G_\gamma ^<(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`\underset{\lambda \mathrm{}}{lim}e^{\beta \lambda }G_\gamma ^{<(\lambda )}(ϵ\lambda ),`$ (38)
$`G_\gamma ^>(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`\underset{\lambda \mathrm{}}{lim}G_\gamma ^{>(\lambda )}(ϵ\lambda ).`$ (39)
These projections are analogous to the ones used in equilibrium, when $`G^<`$ coincides with the negative-frequency, or “defect”, spectral function.  Note that, unlike $`G^>`$ and $`G^r`$, the lesser Green function $`G^<`$ has no contribution from the $`\widehat{N}_f=0`$ subspace. Rather, its leading-order term comes from the $`\widehat{N}_f=1`$ subspace, which decays to zero as $`e^{\beta \lambda }`$. The extra $`e^{\beta \lambda }`$ exponent in Eq. (38) is responsible for canceling this decay to zero when the limit $`\lambda \mathrm{}`$ is implemented.

The projected Green functions have standard forms in terms of the projected self-energies. Specifically, $`G_\gamma ^{r,a}(ϵ)`$ and $`G_\gamma ^{<,>}(ϵ)`$ are equal to

$`G_\gamma ^{r,a}(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{ϵϵ_\gamma \mathrm{\Sigma }_\gamma ^{r,a}(ϵ)}},`$ (40)
$`G_\gamma ^{<,>}(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_\gamma ^{<,>}(ϵ)\left|G_\gamma ^r(ϵ)\right|^2,`$ (41)
where $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_\gamma ^{r,a}(ϵ)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_\gamma ^{<,>}(ϵ)`$ are obtained from their unprojected counterparts according to the projection rules of Eqs. (36)–(39). The KNCA  consists of a particular set of diagrams for the pseudo-fermion self-energies, depicted in Fig. 2. Figure 2(c) shows the building block for the NCA self-energy diagrams of Fig. 2(a). It consists of a particle-hole bubble, with one fully dressed pseudo-fermion line and one bare conduction-electron line. The KNCA self-energy features a ladder of such bubble diagrams, Fig. 2(b), with vertices inserted in between. Each ladder has an odd number of bubbles, as the incoming and outgoing pseudo-fermion lines share the same isospin label. For the Hamiltonian of Eq. (12), the physical spin is conserved along the ladder, whereas both the physical spin and the lead index (i.e., $`\alpha =L,R`$) are conserved for the Hamiltonian of Eq. (15).

Focusing on the Hamiltonian of Eq. (12), there are two separate ladders, $`D_\pm ^{(\lambda )}`$, labeled by the index of the outgoing and incoming pseudo-fermion lines. Projecting $`D_\pm ^{(\lambda )}`$ according to the rules laid out in Eqs. (36)–(39), one obtains

$$D_\pm ^r(ϵ)=\frac{gP_{}^r(ϵ)}{1gP_+^r(ϵ)P_{}^r(ϵ)},$$
(42)
$$D_\pm ^<(ϵ)=\frac{gP_{}^<(ϵ)+g^2P_\pm ^<(ϵ)\left|P_{}^r(ϵ)\right|^2}{\left|1gP_+^r(ϵ)P_{}^r(ϵ)\right|^2},$$
(43)
where $`g_L`$ and $`g_R`$ are the dimensionless tunneling conductances for the left and right junction, defined in Eq. (17), $`g=g_L+g_R`$ is the sum of the two dimensionless conductances, and

$`P_+^r(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha =L,R}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{g_\alpha }{g}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}G_+^r(ϵ^{})f(ϵ^{}ϵ\mu _\alpha )`$ (45)
$`\times \nu _\alpha (ϵ^{}ϵ\mu _\alpha )dϵ^{},`$
$`P_+^<(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha =L,R}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{g_\alpha }{g}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}G_+^<(ϵ^{})f(ϵ^{}+ϵ+\mu _\alpha )`$ (47)
$`\times \nu _\alpha (ϵ^{}ϵ\mu _\alpha )dϵ^{},`$
$`P_{}^r(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}G_{}^r(ϵ^{})f(ϵ^{}ϵ)\nu _B(ϵ^{}ϵ)𝑑ϵ^{},`$ (48)
$`P_{}^<(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}G_{}^<(ϵ^{})f(ϵ^{}+ϵ)\nu _B(ϵ^{}ϵ)𝑑ϵ^{}.`$ (49)
Here $`\nu _\gamma (ϵ)=\rho _\gamma (ϵ)/\rho _\gamma (0)`$ with $`\gamma =L,R`$, or $`B`$ is the reduced density of states.

In Eqs. (42) and (43) we adopted the convention by which the $`D_{}`$ ladder includes the matrix elements of the two end-point vertices, and is multiplied by $`\rho _B(0)`$. The $`D_+`$ ladder does not include the matrix elements of the two end-point vertices, but is multiplied by $`g/\rho _B(0)`$. We further restricted attention to the case of a zero physical magnetic field (not to be confused with $`h=2E_C\delta N`$), in which case all dependences on the physical spin index $`\sigma `$ drop. With these notations the KNCA self-energies take the form

$`\mathrm{\Sigma }_+^r(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`2{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha =L,R}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{g_\alpha }{g}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}D_+^r(ϵ^{})f(ϵ+ϵ^{}+\mu _\alpha )`$ (51)
$`\times \nu _\alpha (ϵϵ^{}\mu _\alpha )dϵ^{},`$
$`\mathrm{\Sigma }_+^<(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`2{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha =L,R}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{g_\alpha }{g}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}D_+^<(ϵ^{})f(ϵϵ^{}\mu _\alpha )`$ (53)
$`\times \nu _\alpha (ϵϵ^{}\mu _\alpha )dϵ^{},`$
$`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{}^r(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`2{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}D_{}^r(ϵ^{})f(ϵ+ϵ^{})\nu _B(ϵϵ^{})𝑑ϵ^{},`$ (54)
$`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{}^<(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`2{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}D_{}^<(ϵ^{})f(ϵϵ^{})\nu _B(ϵϵ^{})𝑑ϵ^{},`$ (55)
where an extra factor of two comes from summation over the two equivalent spin orientations.

Equations (42)–(55) represent the complete summation of the KNCA class of diagrams for the pseudo-fermion self-energies, in the case where coherent propagation is allowed between the two leads \[i.e., the Hamiltonian of Eq. (12)\]. For $`g\nu _B(ϵ)=g_L\nu _L(ϵ)+g_R\nu _R(ϵ)`$ these equations properly reduce in equilibrium to those of Ref.  for the planner two-channel Kondo Hamiltonian.  The adaptation of Eqs. (42)–(55) to the Hamiltonian of Eq. (15) is specified in Appendix A.

## IV Formulation of the Current

Our next goal is to formulate the current in terms of the pseudo-fermion Green functions introduced in the previous section. We begin our discussion with the model of Eq. (12).

### A Coherent propagation between the two junctions

The operator $`\widehat{I}_\alpha `$, describing the electrical current flowing into lead $`\alpha `$, is given by the time derivative of the charge operator for that lead, $`\widehat{Q}_\alpha `$. Within the slave-fermion representation of the Hamiltonian of Eq. (12) one obtains

$$\widehat{I}_\alpha =i\frac{e}{\mathrm{}}t_\alpha \underset{k,k^{},\sigma }{}\{c_{\alpha k\sigma }^{}c_{Bk^{}\sigma }f_{}^{}f_+\mathrm{H}.\mathrm{c}.\}.$$
(56)
Applying the projection procedure of Eq. (28), the time-averaged current $`I_\alpha (V)`$ reads

$$I_\alpha (V)=2\frac{e}{\mathrm{}}t_\alpha \underset{\sigma }{}\mathrm{Im}\left\{𝒢_{\alpha \sigma }^<(t,t)\right\},$$
(57)
where $`𝒢_{\alpha \sigma }^<(t,t^{})`$ is equal to

$$𝒢_{\alpha \sigma }^<(t,t^{})=\frac{1}{Z_{\mathrm{imp}}}\underset{\lambda \mathrm{}}{lim}e^{\beta \lambda }\underset{k,k^{}}{}c_{\alpha k^{}\sigma }^{}(t^{})\widehat{F}_{k\sigma }(t)_\lambda $$
(58)
with

$$\widehat{F}_{k\sigma }(t)=c_{Bk\sigma }(t)f_{}^{}(t)f_+(t).$$
(59)
In steady state, $`𝒢_{\alpha \sigma }^<(t,t^{})`$ depends solely on the time difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }t=tt^{}`$. Switching over to the energy domain and applying standard perturbation theory one obtains the exact relation

$$𝒢_{\alpha \sigma }^<(ϵ)=t_\alpha \left[G_{\mathrm{imp}}^r(ϵ)\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha ^<(ϵ\mu _\alpha )+G_{\mathrm{imp}}^<(ϵ)\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha ^a(ϵ\mu _\alpha )\right],$$
(60)
where $`G_{\mathrm{imp}}^<(ϵ)`$ is the Fourier transform of the response function

$$G_{\mathrm{imp}}^<(t,t^{})=\frac{1}{Z_{\mathrm{imp}}}\underset{\lambda \mathrm{}}{lim}e^{\beta \lambda }\underset{k,k^{}}{}\widehat{F}_{k^{}\sigma }^{}(t^{})\widehat{F}_{k\sigma }(t)_\lambda ,$$
(61)
$`G_{\mathrm{imp}}^r(ϵ)`$ is its retarded counterpart, and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha ^<(ϵ)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha ^r(ϵ)`$ are equal to

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha ^<(ϵ)=2\pi \rho _\alpha (ϵ)f(ϵ),$$
(62)
$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha ^a(ϵ)=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}\frac{\rho _\alpha (ϵ^{})}{ϵϵ^{}i\delta }𝑑ϵ^{}.$$
(63)
Physically, $`T_{\alpha \alpha }(ϵ)=t_\alpha ^2G_{\mathrm{imp}}^r(ϵ)`$ is the conduction-electron $`T`$-matrix for scattering from lead $`\alpha `$ to lead $`\alpha `$. Hence $`G_{\mathrm{imp}}`$ is analogous to the dressed impurity Green function in the Anderson impurity model. Indeed, inserting Eq. (60) into Eq. (57) yields

$`I_\alpha (V)={\displaystyle \frac{2eg_\alpha }{\mathrm{}\rho _B(0)}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}`$ $`\left[2\pi A_{\mathrm{imp}}(ϵ)f(ϵ\mu _\alpha )G_{\mathrm{imp}}^<(ϵ)\right]`$ (65)
$`\times \nu _\alpha (ϵ\mu _\alpha )dϵ,`$
which has the same structure as the expression for the current through an Anderson impurity.  Here $`A_{\mathrm{imp}}(ϵ)=(1/\pi )\mathrm{Im}\{G_{\mathrm{imp}}^r(ϵ)\}`$ is the spectral part of $`G_{\mathrm{imp}}^r`$.

The energy integration in Eq. (65) is restricted in practice to an interval corresponding to the chemical-potential difference between the leads, broadened by the temperature. To the extent that one can neglect the energy dependence of $`\rho _\alpha (ϵ)`$ on that scale, it is possible to eliminate $`G_{\mathrm{imp}}^<`$ from the expression for the current by using the identity $`I_L=I_R=(g_RI_Lg_LI_R)/g`$, to obtain

$$I_L(V)=\frac{2e}{h}_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝒯_{\mathrm{eff}}(ϵ)\left[f(ϵ\mu _L)f(ϵ\mu _R)\right]𝑑ϵ$$
(66)
with

$$𝒯_{\mathrm{eff}}(ϵ)=\frac{4\pi ^2g_Lg_R}{\rho _B(0)g}A_{\mathrm{imp}}(ϵ).$$
(67)
Equation (66) is exact in the wide-band limit, when the energy dependence of $`\rho _\alpha (ϵ)`$ can be neglected. It has the familiar form of an integral of an effective transmission coefficient $`𝒯_{\mathrm{eff}}(ϵ)`$ times the difference of two Fermi functions. Similar to the case of tunneling through an Anderson impurity, $`𝒯_{\mathrm{eff}}(ϵ)`$ depends strongly on the temperature and bias at low energies. Our main task is to evaluate this effective transmission coefficient, which requires knowledge of $`G_{\mathrm{imp}}^r(ϵ)`$ and $`G_{\mathrm{imp}}^<(ϵ)`$. We calculate the latter functions using the NCA class of diagrams.

Figure 3 shows the KNCA diagram for $`G_{\mathrm{imp}}`$. Similar to the standard NCA formulation of the impurity Green function for the Anderson impurity model,  $`G_{\mathrm{imp}}`$ is given by a simple bubble diagram, which consists of one fully dressed $`f_+`$ pseudo-fermion propagator and one $`D_+`$ ladder propagator. The resulting KNCA expressions for $`G_{\mathrm{imp}}^r(ϵ)`$ and $`G_{\mathrm{imp}}^<(ϵ)`$ read

$`G_{\mathrm{imp}}^r(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\rho _B(0)}{2\pi gZ_{\mathrm{imp}}}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}[G_+^<(ϵ^{})D_+^a(ϵ^{}ϵ)`$ (69)
$`G_+^r(ϵ+ϵ^{})D_+^<(ϵ^{})]dϵ^{},`$
$$G_{\mathrm{imp}}^<(ϵ)=\frac{\rho _B(0)}{\pi gZ_{\mathrm{imp}}}_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}G_+^<(ϵ+ϵ^{})\mathrm{Im}\left\{D_+^r(ϵ^{})\right\}𝑑ϵ^{},$$
(70)
where

$$Z_{\mathrm{imp}}=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}\left[G_+^<(ϵ)+G_{}^<(ϵ)\right]\frac{dϵ}{2\pi }.$$
(71)
Hence $`G_{\mathrm{imp}}^r(ϵ)`$ and $`G_{\mathrm{imp}}^<(ϵ)`$ reduce within the KNCA to convolutions of the $`\gamma =+`$ pseudo-fermion Green function and the $`D_+`$ ladder.

### B No coherent propagation between the two junctions

Formulation of the current for the Hamiltonian of Eq. (15) follows the same basic steps presented in the previous subsection for the Hamiltonian of Eq. (12). The sole difference in Eqs. (56)–(59) enters through the $`c_{Bk^{}\sigma }`$ operators, which acquire an additional lead index. The latter index carries over to $`\widehat{F}_{k\sigma }`$ and $`G_{\mathrm{imp}}^<(t,t^{})`$, whose definitions are modified according to

$$\widehat{F}_{\alpha k\sigma }(t)=c_{Bk\alpha \sigma }(t)f_{}^{}(t)f_+(t),$$
(72)
$$G_{\mathrm{imp},\alpha }^<(t,t^{})=\frac{1}{Z_{\mathrm{imp}}}\underset{\lambda \mathrm{}}{lim}e^{\beta \lambda }\underset{k,k^{}}{}\widehat{F}_{\alpha k^{}\sigma }^{}(t^{})\widehat{F}_{\alpha k\sigma }(t)_\lambda .$$
(73)
Contrary to Eq. (65) for the Hamiltonian of Eq. (12), each of the expressions for $`I_L(V)`$ and $`I_R(V)`$ involve then a different $`G_{\mathrm{imp},\alpha }`$ function:

$`I_\alpha (V)={\displaystyle \frac{2eg_\alpha }{\mathrm{}\rho _{B\alpha }(0)}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}`$ $`\left[2\pi A_{\mathrm{imp},\alpha }(ϵ)f(ϵ\mu _\alpha )G_{\mathrm{imp},\alpha }^<(ϵ)\right]`$ (75)
$`\times \nu _\alpha (ϵ\mu _\alpha )dϵ.`$
Here $`g_\alpha `$ are the dimensionless tunneling conductances of Eq. (19), and $`A_{\mathrm{imp},\alpha }(ϵ)`$ is the spectral part of $`G_{\mathrm{imp},\alpha }^r`$.

In general, $`G_{\mathrm{imp},L}`$ and $`G_{\mathrm{imp},R}`$ are two distinct functions, with no simple relation. As a result, one can no longer exploit current conservation to eliminate $`G_{\mathrm{imp},\alpha }^<`$ from the expression for the current, as was done in Eq. (66). Hence, there is no simple analog to the effective transmission coefficient of Eq. (67) when no coherent propagation is allowed between the two leads. This is to be expected, as electrons do not truly propagate between the two leads in this case.

As before, $`G_{\mathrm{imp},L}(ϵ)`$ and $`G_{\mathrm{imp},R}(ϵ)`$ are still given within the KNCA by the bubble diagram of Fig. 3, which features, however, a different ladder for $`\alpha =L`$ and $`\alpha =R`$. Explicitly, one has

$`G_{\mathrm{imp},\alpha }^r(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\rho _{B\alpha }(0)}{2\pi g_\alpha Z_{\mathrm{imp}}}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}[G_+^<(ϵ^{})D_{\alpha +}^a(ϵ^{}ϵ)`$ (77)
$`G_+^r(ϵ+ϵ^{})D_{\alpha +}^<(ϵ^{})]dϵ^{},`$
$$G_{\mathrm{imp},\alpha }^<(ϵ)=\frac{\rho _{B\alpha }(0)}{\pi g_\alpha Z_{\mathrm{imp}}}_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}G_+^<(ϵ+ϵ^{})\mathrm{Im}\left\{D_{\alpha +}^r(ϵ^{})\right\}𝑑ϵ^{}.$$
(78)
In the following section, we present our numerical results for the differential conductance as obtained from Eqs. (65) and (75) using the KNCA.

## V Results

We have computed the differential conductance for each of the models of Eqs. (12) and (15), by first solving the KNCA equations for the pseudo-fermion Green functions and ladders, and then evaluating the current using Eqs. (65) and (75), respectively. The differential conductance $`G(T,V)=dI/dV`$ was obtained by numerically differentiating the current with respect to $`V`$, without resorting to the wide-band limit leading to Eq. (66). The most difficult step in the above procedure is solution of the KNCA equations, which requires simultaneous solution of the retarded and lesser pseudo-fermion and ladder functions. This was achieved by repeated iterations of the KNCA equations until convergence is reached. As is always the case with numerical solutions of NCA-type equations, the key to high-precision numerics lies in a well-designed grid of mesh points that scatter points more densely near the threshold and peaks of the relevant functions. To this end, we have used a combination of linear and logarithmic grids. As a critical test for the precision of our numerical code, we have checked in all our runs that the pseudo-fermion spectral functions fulfilled the spectral sum rule to within one part in one thousand ($`0.1`$%). Extreme precision was required at very low temperatures and bias, when $`k_BT`$ and $`|eV|`$ were both much smaller than the corresponding Kondo temperature $`k_BT_K`$.

Throughout this paper we focus our attention on the degeneracy point, $`h=0`$, and set $`\mu _L=\mu _R=eV/2`$ We further use a semi-circular conduction-electron density of states with half width $`D`$ for the leads and the quantum box: $`\rho _\alpha (ϵ)=\rho _\gamma (0)\sqrt{1(ϵ/D)^2}`$. Here $`\gamma `$ is equal to $`L,R`$ or $`B`$ for the Hamiltonian of Eq. (12), and $`L,R,BL`$ or $`BR`$ for the Hamiltonian of Eq. (15). Note that we restrict ourselves for simplicity to a single joint bandwidth $`D`$ for the box and the leads. Although this need not be the case in real systems, the precise details of the band cut-offs should not affect the low-energy physics of interest here.

### A Coherent propagation between the two junctions

We begin our discussion with the case where coherent propagation is allowed between the leads, i.e., the Hamiltonian of Eq. (12). As discussed above, the latter Hamiltonian reduces in equilibrium to the planner two-channel Kondo model with $`\rho _0J_{}=2\sqrt{g}`$. Thus, the low-energy physics of the model is governed by the corresponding Kondo temperature $`T_K`$, which we extract by fitting the slope of the $`\mathrm{ln}(T)`$ diverging term in the isospin susceptibility

$$\chi _{\mathrm{isospin}}=\frac{S_z}{h}|_{h=0}$$
(79)
to the Bethe ansatz expression

$$\chi _{\mathrm{isospin}}(T)\frac{1}{20k_BT_K}\mathrm{ln}(T_K/T).$$
(80)
For $`g=g_L+g_R=0.04`$, which corresponds to $`\rho _0J_{}=0.4`$ in the planner two-channel Kondo representation, we obtain $`k_BT_K/D=3.85\times 10^3`$.

As discussed at length in Ref. , the KNCA estimate of $`T_K`$ deviates from the correct value of Eq. (16). However, as shown by comparison with the exact Bethe ansatz solution,  the KNCA gives surprisingly accurate results for the temperature and field dependence of the magnetic susceptibility in the isotropic two-channel model, when $`T`$ and $`\mu _Bg_JH`$ are rescaled with the extracted Kondo temperature. We expect a similar level of accuracy to hold for the nonequilibrium current in each of the models under consideration.

#### 1 Symmetric coupling

Figure 4 shows the temperature dependence of the zero-bias conductance for different values of $`g_L=g_R`$. As expected of Kondo-assisted tunneling, the conductance is enhanced with decreasing temperature according to a universal curve. Although $`T_K`$ is varied by nearly three orders of magnitude, all curves collapse onto a single line. Slight deviations from universality are seen above $`T/T_K10`$ for the larger couplings, which may be due to the asymmetric line shape of the imaginary part of the conduction-electron $`T`$-matrix within the KNCA (see, e.g., Fig. 12 of Ref. ). The latter asymmetry is enhanced at high energies as the coupling is increased.

For over a decade of temperature around $`T_K`$, the enhancement in $`G(0,T)`$ is approximately logarithmic in temperature. Below $`T_K`$, the conductance crosses over to a $`\sqrt{T}`$ temperature dependence. As demonstrated in the inset of Fig. 4, the low-temperature conductance can be successfully fit to the form

$$G(0,T)=G(0,0)B\sqrt{\frac{T}{T_K}}$$
(81)
with $`G(0,0)h/e^2=1.225\pm 0.005`$ and $`Bh/e^2=0.68\pm 0.015`$. Such a square-root temperature dependence of the conductance is expected of the two-channel Kondo effect. It stems from the square-root energy dependence of the imaginary part of the zero-temperature, zero-bias conduction-electron $`T`$-matrix,  or $`A_{\mathrm{imp}}(ϵ)`$ in this context. A similar square-root temperature dependence of the conductance was also found for tunneling through a two-channel Anderson impurity,  and measured for zero-bias anomalies in ballistic metallic point contacts.  Note that the extracted zero-temperature conductance corresponds to a mostly open channel ($`61\%`$ of the full conductance), and falls within 1% from the exact zero-temperature KNCA value of $`G(0,0)h/e^2=\pi ^2/8`$. The latter figure is obtained by taking the zero-temperature limit of Eqs. (42)–(55) and (69) and performing a Müller-Hartmann type of analysis,  reproducing the results of Cox and Ruckenstein for the NCA treatment of the multichannel Anderson model.

It should be emphasized that the above enhancement of the zero-bias conductance for single-mode junctions differs markedly from the case of wide tunnel junctions considered by Schoeller and Schön.  Omitting inter-mode mixing, these authors found that $`G(0,T)`$ vanishes as $`1/\mathrm{ln}(T)`$ at low temperatures, in accordance with the vanishing-coupling fixed point of the infinite-channel Kondo Hamiltonian. However, as recently shown by Zaránd et al.,  for realistic junctions with inter-mode mixing there exists an exponentially small crossover temperature $`T^{}`$, below which two-channel Kondo behavior prevails even for wide junctions. Hence our results should also apply to wide tunnel junctions at sufficiently low temperatures, provided electrons can propagate coherently between the two leads.

Figure 5 shows the differential conductance for the symmetric coupling $`g_L=g_R=0.02`$ and different temperatures. With decreasing temperature, a zero-bias anomaly develops in $`G(V,T)`$, the height of which is plotted in Fig. 4. For $`T<T_K`$, the anomaly acquires a $`\sqrt{V}`$ voltage dependence, which is rounded off for voltages on the scale of the temperature. For $`TT_K`$, one is left with a sharp cusp in $`G(V,T)`$ at zero bias. Similar to the $`\sqrt{T}`$ temperature dependence of the conductance, also the $`\sqrt{V}`$ voltage dependence of the differential conductance stems from the anomalous square-root energy dependence of the imaginary part of the conduction-electron $`T`$-matrix in the two-channel Kondo effect.

Perhaps the most distinctive signature of the two-channel Kondo effect, though, lies in the scaling form of the differential conductance with $`eV/k_BT`$. Following Ralph et al.,  we plotted in Fig. 6 the scaling function

$$H(V,T)=\frac{G(0,T)G(V,T)}{A\sqrt{T}}$$
(82)
versus $`x=(eV/k_BT)^{1/2}`$, where $`A`$ is extracted from the leading temperature dependence of the conductance: $`G(0,T)=G(0,0)A\sqrt{T}`$ \[i.e., $`A`$ is related to $`B`$ of Eq. (81) through $`A=B/\sqrt{T_K}`$\]. For $`TT_K`$, all curves collapse onto a single scaling curve, indicating that $`H(V,T)`$ reduces to a function of the single scaling variable $`eV/k_BT`$. The resulting scaling curve features two qualitatively different regimes: $`x1`$ and $`x1`$. For $`x1`$, the temperature cuts off the two-channel Kondo effect. Hence $`H(x)`$ is proportional to $`x^4`$, corresponding to a quadratic voltage dependence of the differential conductance. By contrast, for $`x1`$ the voltage bias serves as the cut-off energy, and $`H(x)`$ depends linearly on $`x`$. The crossover between these two regimes takes place for $`x1`$. With increasing $`T`$ there are deviations from scaling. These are significant for $`T`$ as low as $`0.3T_K`$. At higher temperatures the curves fan out, signaling departure from the scaling regime of the two-channel Kondo effect.

Note that the scaling curve of Fig. 6 is quite similar to the one computed for tunneling through a two-channel Anderson impurity,  and the one measured for zero-bias anomalies in ballistic metallic point contacts.  While not unexpected, this resemblance of scaling curves is by no means obvious, since the voltage bias couples differently to the impurity within the two-channel Anderson model of Hettler et al and the Hamiltonian of Eq. (12). In Ref. , the spin-up and spin-down conduction-electron sectors undergo the same chemical-potential splitting, as the bias couples to the two spin sectors in an identical manner. By contrast, only the lead electrons (the isospin-up sector) experience a chemical-potential splitting within the Hamiltonian of Eq. (12), which breaks the equivalence of the two isospin sectors. As indicated by Fig. 6, this qualitative difference in the coupling to the voltage bias has only a moderate effect on the scaling curve, which is more shallow in Fig. 6 than in Ref. .

That the shape of the scaling curve depends only moderately on the microscopic details of the system can be understood from comparison to a simple toy model, consisting of a noninteracting tunnel junction with a square-root energy-dependent transmission coefficient: $`𝒯(ϵ)=𝒯_0𝒯_1|ϵ|^{1/2}`$. In this case one can compute the scaling function of Eq. (82) exactly to obtain

$$H(V,T)=\frac{F(eV/k_BT)}{F(0)}1,$$
(83)
with

$$F(y)=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}\frac{e^x}{(1+e^x)^2}\sqrt{|xy|}𝑑x.$$
(84)
Note that Eqs. (83) and (84) are independent of both $`𝒯_0`$ and $`𝒯_1`$. As seen in Fig. 6, the scaling curve of Eq. (83) has the same general structure as that of the Hamiltonian of Eq. (12), despite the fact that the noninteracting model does not account for the strong temperature and voltage dependence of the effective transmission coefficient of Eq. (67). Thus, while the precise shape of the scaling curve does depend on the microscopic details of the system at hand, its general structure appears to be dictated by the square-root energy dependence of the imaginary part of the conduction-electron $`T`$-matrix at zero temperature and zero bias.

#### 2 Asymmetric coupling

Thus far we have focused on symmetric coupling to the right and left leads. Below we consider the effect of an asymmetry in the coupling to the two leads. Specifically, we vary $`x=g_R/(g_L+g_R)`$ while keeping $`g=g_L+g_R`$ fixed, as to maintain the same Kondo temperature $`T_K`$. Our results are summarized in Fig. 7.

The most notable effect of asymmetric coupling is the reduction in the differential conductance with increasing asymmetry. As expected, the zero-bias conductance varies with $`x`$ according to $`4x(1x)`$, which stems from the fact that, in equilibrium, $`A_{\mathrm{imp}}(ϵ)`$ in Eq. (67) depends solely on the sum $`g=g_L+g_R`$, and not on the individual $`g_\alpha `$’s. This effect is well captured by the KNCA (Fig. 7, left inset), which serves yet as another check for our numerical procedure.

However, the KNCA produces an artificial asymmetry in the voltage dependence of the differential conductance. To see this we note that for a symmetric density of states, $`\rho _\alpha (ϵ)=\rho _\alpha (ϵ)`$, the particle-hole transformation $`cc^{}`$, $`(S_x,S_y,S_z)(S_x,S_y,S_z)`$ converts $`V`$ to $`V`$ in both the Hamiltonian of Eq. (12) and the initial density matrix of Eq. (27).  Since the current operator of Eq. (56) is antisymmetric under this transformation, one has the identity $`I_\alpha (V)=I_\alpha (V)`$. Hence the differential conductance is a symmetric function of the bias, regardless of whether $`g_L`$ and $`g_R`$ are equal or not.

It is easy to verify that the KNCA equations preserve this symmetry of the differential conductance in the case of symmetric coupling to the two leads. This stems from the fact that, within the KNCA, the voltage bias enters the effective transmission coefficient of Eq. (67) only through the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_+`$ and $`P_+`$ bubbles of Figs. 2(a) and 2(c), respectively. Since the two leads enter $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_+`$ and $`P_+`$ with equal weights for $`g_R=g_L`$, and since inverting the sign of $`V`$ simply corresponds to interchanging the roles of the two leads, then the resulting bubbles, and thus $`𝒯_{\mathrm{eff}}(ϵ)`$, remain unchanged upon flipping the sign of $`V`$. This is no longer the case for asymmetric coupling, when the two leads enter each of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_+`$ and $`P_+`$ with different weights. Indeed, as seen in Fig. 7, for $`g_Rg_L`$ the KNCA differential conductance acquires an asymmetry that increases with increasing $`x`$. Note that similar (though more pronounced) asymmetries in the differential conductance were obtained within the NCA for tunneling through a two-channel Anderson impurity,  where $`G(V,T)=G(V,T)`$ is not guaranteed by symmetry.

### B No coherent propagation between the two junctions

We proceed with the case where no coherent propagation is allowed between the leads, i.e., the Hamiltonian of Eq. (15). For general couplings, this Hamiltonian reduces in equilibrium to the planner four-channel Kondo model with channel anisotropy. Specifically, within this mapping one has $`\rho _0J_{}^L=2\sqrt{g_L}`$ for the two channels associated with the left junction, and $`\rho _0J_{}^R=2\sqrt{g_R}`$ for the two channels associated with the right junction. Only for $`g_L=g_R`$ is an isotropic planner four-channel Kondo model recovered, which shows the qualitative difference between symmetric and asymmetric couplings. For symmetric coupling, the model flows in equilibrium to the four-channel Kondo fixed point, while for any asymmetry it flows to a two-channel Kondo fixed point where one lead — that with the weaker bare $`g_\alpha `$ — is effectively decoupled. This renormalization-group (RG) flow diagram of the model is illustrated in Fig. 8. As emphasized by Furusaki and Matveev,  the resulting conductance identically vanishes at $`T=0`$ for any $`g_Lg_R`$.

From the discussion above it is clear that, unlike in the case of the Hamiltonian of Eq. (12), there is no single energy scale that governs the low-temperature, low-bias transport properties of the system for all ratios of $`g_L`$ to $`g_R`$. If for symmetric coupling, $`g_L=g_R=g`$, transport is governed at low energies by the four-channel Kondo temperature of Eq. (21), for asymmetric coupling there is a new crossover scale for the onset of two-channel behavior. Below we explore both regimes.

#### 1 Symmetric coupling

Figure 9 shows the temperature dependence of the zero-bias conductance, for $`g_L=g_R=0.017`$. In the absence of a precise procedure for extracting the KNCA Kondo temperature in the four-channel case, we use the scale $`k_BT_0=4.7\times 10^5D`$ as a rough estimate of $`T_K`$. This estimate builds upon the fact that the KNCA four-channel Kondo temperature is proportional to $`\mathrm{exp}[2/\rho _0J_{}]`$ rather than $`\mathrm{exp}[\pi /2\rho _0J_{}]`$ which translates to $`T_K^{(KNCA)}\mathrm{exp}[1/\sqrt{g}]`$ in the notation of Eq. (21). We expect $`T_0`$ and the actual KNCA Kondo temperature to be related by a factor of order unity.

In accordance with the onset of the four-channel Kondo effect, the conductance is enhanced with decreasing temperature, approaching the zero-temperature value of $`G(0,0)=0.547e^2/h`$. Somewhat below $`T_0`$, the conductance crosses over from an approximate logarithmic temperature dependence to a $`T^{1/3}`$ power-law form. The latter behavior is demonstrated in the inset to Fig. 9, where the low-$`T`$ conductance is successfully fitted to

$$G(0,T)=G(0,0)B\left(\frac{T}{T_K}\right)^{1/3}$$
(85)
with $`G(0,0)=0.547e^2/h`$ and $`B=0.195e^2/h`$.

The anomalous $`T^{1/3}`$ temperature dependence of the conductance at low $`T`$ is again a manifestation of the $`|ϵ|^{1/3}`$ energy dependence of the imaginary part of the zero-temperature conduction-electron $`T`$-matrix in the four-channel Kondo effect.  The same power law also characterizes the voltage dependence of the zero-bias anomaly in the differential conductance, which is plotted in Fig. 10.

Similar to the model of Eq. (12), the differential conductance for the model of Eq. (15) also displays scaling with $`V/T`$, but with a different power law. Specifically, Fig. 11 shows a plot of the scaling function

$$H(V,T)=\frac{G(0,T)G(V,T)}{AT^{1/3}}$$
(86)
versus $`x=(eV/k_BT)^{1/3}`$, where $`A`$ is extracted from the leading $`T^{1/3}`$ temperature dependence of the conductance: $`G(0,T)=G(0,0)AT^{1/3}`$ \[i.e., $`A`$ is related to $`B`$ of Eq. (85) through $`A=B/T_K^{1/3}`$\]. For $`TT_0`$, all lines converge to a single scaling curve, indicating that $`H(V,T)`$ indeed reduces to a function of the single scaling variable $`eV/k_BT`$. However, the approach to scaling with decreasing $`T`$, as well as the fanning out of the curves with increasing $`T`$, is notably slower than for the Hamiltonian of Eq. (12) (compare with Fig. 6). The slower approach to scaling is consistent with the fact that the sub-leading energy dependence of the imaginary part of the $`T=0`$ conduction-electron $`T`$-matrix, which breaks scaling, is stronger for the four-channel Kondo effect  (of order $`|ϵ|^{2/3}`$). The slower fanning out at higher $`T`$ stems from the weaker $`T^{1/3}`$ temperature dependence of the denominator in Eq. (86), as compared to $`\sqrt{T}`$ in Eq. (82). Thus, scaling with $`V/T`$ is a sharper diagnostic for the two-channel Kondo effect that develops for the Hamiltonian of Eq. (12) than it is for the four-channel Kondo effect that develops for the Hamiltonian of Eq. (15) with $`g_L=g_R`$.

As in the case of the Hamiltonian of Eq. (12), the general shape of the scaling curve of Eq. (86) is largely dictated by the $`|ϵ|^{1/3}`$ energy dependence of the imaginary part of the zero-temperature, zero-bias conduction-electron $`T`$-matrix, $`T_{\alpha \alpha }(ϵ)=t_\alpha ^2G_{\mathrm{imp},\alpha }^r(ϵ)`$. To see this, we plotted for comparison in Fig. 11 the corresponding scaling function for a simple toy model, consisting of a noninteracting tunnel junction with an $`|ϵ|^{1/3}`$ energy-dependent transmission coefficient: $`𝒯(ϵ)=𝒯_0𝒯_1|ϵ|^{1/3}`$. The exact scaling curve for this toy model remains given by Eq. (83), but with a slightly modified $`F`$ function:

$$F(y)=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}\frac{e^x}{(1+e^x)^2}|xy|^{1/3}𝑑x.$$
(87)
Clearly, the noninteracting model lacks the complicated temperature and voltage dependences of $`G_{\mathrm{imp},\alpha }^r`$ and $`G_{\mathrm{imp},\alpha }^<`$ in Eq. (75). Nevertheless, the scaling curve of Eqs. (83) and (87) is quite similar to that of the Hamiltonian of Eq. (15) with $`g_L=g_R`$, as seen in Fig. 11. Hence the overall shape of the scaling curve for the Hamiltonian of Eq. (15) is largely dictated by the $`|ϵ|^{1/3}`$ energy dependence of $`A_{\mathrm{imp},\alpha }(ϵ)`$ at zero bias and zero temperature.

#### 2 Asymmetric coupling

As discussed above, one expects the zero-temperature conductance to vanish for any asymmetry in the coupling to the left and right leads. In the limit of both a large asymmetry and strong tunneling to one lead (i.e., a nearly open channel), this was indeed shown to be the case by Furusaki and Matveev.  For general couplings, one expects the system to initially flow towards the four-channel fixed point denoted by A in Fig. 8, before curving towards one of the two-channel fixed points, either B or C in Fig. 8. Depending on the degree of asymmetry, this flow may result in a nonmonotonic temperature and voltage dependence of the differential conductance. Below we explore this scenario within the KNCA.

Figure 12 shows the evolution of the differential conductance with increasing $`x=g_R/(g_R+g_L)`$. Here we have fixed the coupling to the right lead at $`g_R=0.04`$, and varied $`g_L`$ from $`g_L/g_R=1`$ down to $`g_L/g_R=0.25`$. As a reference energy, we use the two-channel Kondo temperature corresponding to sole coupling to the right lead, which is the only relevant low-energy scale for $`g_Rg_L`$. For $`g_R=0.04`$ and $`g_L=0`$, this two-channel Kondo temperature is equal to $`k_BT_{2\mathrm{c}\mathrm{h}}/D=3.85\times 10^3`$. All curves presented were computed for $`T/T_{2\mathrm{c}\mathrm{h}}=0.01`$. An important point to notice is that the KNCA respects the symmetry $`G(V,T)=G(V,T)`$ for the Hamiltonian of Eq. (15) with $`g_Lg_R`$, in contrast to the Hamiltonian of Eq. (12). This is evident from the symmetric differential-conductance curves of Fig. 12.

The obvious effect of increasing $`x`$ in Fig. 12 is to reduce the overall differential-conductance signal. This is to be expected, and is also seen in Fig. 7 for the Hamiltonian of Eq. (12). A more dramatic effect takes place near zero bias. Here the peak that forms for symmetric coupling ($`x=0.5`$) first splits with increasing $`x`$, leaving only a broadened dip for the larger values of $`x`$ in Fig. 12. In particular, for $`x`$ close to but larger than $`0.5`$ (exemplified by $`x=0.53`$), a nonmonotonic voltage dependence of the differential conductance is seen near zero bias. This behavior is consistent with the notion of an initial flow towards the four-channel fixed point, before departing towards the two-channel fixed point with the left lead decoupled. For larger asymmetries (i.e., larger $`x`$), the system no longer flows close to the four-channel fixed point, leaving only a monotonic dip in $`G(V,T)`$.

The emergence of a new low-energy scale for asymmetric coupling is clearly seen in Fig. 12. For symmetric coupling, $`x=0.5`$, the four-channel Kondo temperature $`T_{4\mathrm{c}\mathrm{h}}`$ is the only relevant low-energy scale. For small asymmetries, represented by $`x=0.53`$, a new low-energy scale $`T_{\mathrm{dip}}T_{4\mathrm{c}\mathrm{h}}`$ emerges, corresponding to half the width of the zero-temperature dip that opens in $`G(V,T)`$. The new scale $`T_{\mathrm{dip}}`$ steadily grows with increasing asymmetry, saturating at $`T_{\mathrm{dip}}T_{2\mathrm{c}\mathrm{h}}`$ for large asymmetries (see, e.g., $`x=0.8`$ in Figs. 12 and 13). In this limit, no traces are left of the somewhat smaller four-channel Kondo temperature $`T_{4\mathrm{c}\mathrm{h}}`$. Due to the small temperatures involved we are unable to systematically study the evolution of $`T_{\mathrm{dip}}`$ for small asymmetries. Nevertheless, by going to lower temperatures we can estimate that $`T_{\mathrm{dip}}`$ for $`x=0.58`$ is at least ten-fold smaller than for $`x=0.8`$.

Figure 12 was obtained for a finite temperature. At zero temperature, the conductance should vanish for all $`x0.5`$. Although we are unable to directly access the zero-temperature limit, we can confirm this scenario by studying the temperature dependence of the differential conductance. Figures 13 and 14 show our results for $`x=0.8`$. For such a large asymmetry, we are able to go down to temperatures much smaller than $`T_{\mathrm{dip}}`$. Upon going from $`T/T_{2\mathrm{c}\mathrm{h}}=10`$ down to $`T/T_{2\mathrm{c}\mathrm{h}}=5\times 10^4`$, a $`500`$-fold reduction is seen in the conductance. The latter continues to drop steeply even for $`T/T_{2\mathrm{c}\mathrm{h}}`$ as low as $`0.001`$, in accord with a vanishing $`T=0`$ conductance. At low temperatures, $`G(0,T)`$ vanishes linearly with $`T`$, in agreement with previous predictions.  However, the linear-in-$`T`$ regime is restricted to extremely low temperatures. While $`T_{\mathrm{dip}}`$ is of the order of $`T_{2\mathrm{c}\mathrm{h}}`$, the linear temperature dependence of the conductance only sets in at $`T/T_{2\mathrm{c}\mathrm{h}}0.01`$, i.e., two orders of magnitude below $`T_{\mathrm{dip}}`$. Hence the linear-in-$`T`$ regime is unlikely to be accessible experimentally, for weak single-mode junctions.

## VI Discussion

In this paper, we studied the linear and nonlinear transport properties of a single-electron transistor at the degeneracy point. Focusing on weak single-mode junctions, two opposing scenarios were considered: one by which electrons can propagate coherently between the two leads, and the other whereby no electron propagation is allowed between the leads. In the former scenario, both leads are assumed to couple to the same mode within the box. This amounts to a single-mode version of the model used by König et al to describe wide tunnel junctions. In the second scenario, introduced by Furusaki and Matveev,  each lead is coupled to a separate mode within the box. At the degeneracy point, each of these models corresponds to a different planner multichannel Kondo Hamiltonian — the two-channel Kondo Hamiltonian in the case where electrons can propagate coherently between the leads, and the four-channel Kondo Hamiltonian with channel anisotropy in the case where electron propagation is excluded.

Generalizing the noncrossing approximation to these two particular nonequilibrium Kondo-type Hamiltonians, distinct signatures of the multichannel Kondo effect are seen in the differential conductance. Primarily, for symmetric coupling, a zero-bias anomaly develops with decreasing temperature, with a zero-temperature conductance of order unity. Specifically, within the KNCA we obtain $`G(0,0)=1.225e^2/h`$ and $`G(0,0)=0.547e^2/h`$, respectively, for the case where electrons either can or cannot propagate coherently between the leads. As a function of temperature, the conductance crosses over from a characteristic $`\mathrm{ln}(T)`$ temperature dependence at intermediate $`T`$ to a power-law dependence: $`G(0,T)=G(0,0)AT^\eta `$. Here $`\eta `$ is the anomalous power law of the leading energy dependence of the imaginary part of the zero-temperature conduction-electron $`T`$-matrix in the appropriate multichannel Kondo effect: $`\eta =1/2`$ for the two-channel Kondo effect, and $`\eta =1/3`$ for the four-channel Kondo effect.  The same anomalous power law also characterizes the low-temperature differential conductance, which varies as $`G(V,T)=G(0,T)DV^\eta `$ for $`k_BT<eVk_BT_K`$.

Scaling of the differential conductance with $`eV/k_BT`$ is perhaps the clearest fingerprint of the multichannel Kondo effect that develops.  As shown in Figs. 6 and 11, the function

$$H(V,T)=\frac{G(0,T)G(V,T)}{AT^\eta }$$
(88)
with $`k_BT,eVk_BT_K`$ reduces to a function of the single scaling variable $`x=(eV/k_BT)^\eta `$. For $`|x|<1`$, $`H(x)`$ is proportional to $`x^{2/\eta }`$, reflecting the quadratic voltage dependence of $`G(V,T)`$ for $`eV<k_BT`$. By contrast, $`H(x)`$ is linear in $`|x|`$ for $`|x|>1`$, which follows from the $`V^\eta `$ voltage dependence of $`G(V,T)`$ for $`eV>k_BT`$. The crossover between these two markedly different regimes takes place for $`|x|1`$, i.e., when $`eVk_BT`$.

As shown in the text, the shape of the resulting scaling curves can be largely understood within a simple toy model, consisting of a noninteracting tunnel junction with an $`|ϵ|^\eta `$ energy-dependent transmission coefficient: $`𝒯(ϵ)=𝒯_0𝒯_1|ϵ|^\eta `$. Although this simplified model lacks the the nontrivial voltage and temperature dependences of the conduction-electron $`T`$-matrix for the two Kondo problems of interest, it does reproduce the general structure of the two scaling curves. Hence the latter structures are largely dictated by the $`|ϵ|^\eta `$ energy dependence of the imaginary part of the conduction-electron $`T`$-matrix at zero temperature and zero bias. We note, however, that scaling with $`eV/k_BT`$ is a sharper diagnostic for the two-channel Kondo effect that develops in the presence of coherent electron propagation, as compared to the four-channel Kondo effect that develops for the Hamiltonian of Eq. (15) with symmetric coupling.

The scaling curve of Fig. 6 is quite similar to the one obtained for tunneling through a two-channel Anderson impurity,  where a different coupling of the impurity to the voltage bias was considered. In the two-channel Anderson model of Hettler et al. both the spin-up and the spin-down conduction electrons undergo the same chemical-potential splitting. By contrast, only the lead electrons (the isospin-up sector) experience a chemical-potential splitting within the Hamiltonian of Eq. (12), which breaks the equivalence of the two isospin sectors. Despite this qualitative difference between the two models, the resulting scaling curves look qualitatively the same, reinforcing the moderate dependence of the shape of the scaling curve on the microscopic details of the model.

A clear distinction between the two scenarios under consideration is revealed when the coupling to the two leads is asymmetric. For the Hamiltonian of Eq. (12), the main effect of an asymmetry in the coupling is to reduce the zero-temperature conductance by the conventional factor of $`4g_Lg_R/(g_L+g_R)^2`$. By contrast, for the Hamiltonian of Eq. (15), the zero-temperature conductance vanishes for any asymmetry in the couplings. As first argued by Furusaki and Matveev,  this unexpected result stems from the fact that the Hamiltonian of Eq. (15) flows for any asymmetry to a two-channel Kondo fixed point where one lead is decoupled from the box. Depending on the degree of asymmetry, one can obtain then nonmonotonic differential-conductance curves, as seen in Fig. 12 for $`x=0.53`$. The nonmonotonicity reflects an initial flow towards the four-channel fixed point, before curving towards the eventual two-channel fixed point where one lead is decoupled (see Fig. 8 for schematic RG trajectories). For large asymmetries, the system never flows close to the four-channel fixed point, leaving only a dip in the low-bias differential conductance. In accordance with previous predictions,  the zero-bias conductance vanishes linearly with $`T`$. However, as seen in Fig. 14, the linear-in-$`T`$ regime is restricted to extremely low temperatures, and is unlikely to be accessible experimentally for weak single-mode junctions.

Throughout our discussion we have tactfully assumed that the level spacing inside the box is sufficiently small for a continuum-limit description to be used. Indeed, there are two prerequisites for observing a fully developed Kondo effect: (i) the charging energy $`E_C`$ must be sufficiently large for an experimentally accessible Kondo temperature to emerge, and (ii) the level spacing must be sufficiently small as not to cut off the multichannel Kondo effect. As emphasized by Zaránd et al.,  it is difficult to simultaneously fulfill these two conditions in present-day semiconductor devices (although some signatures of the two-channel Kondo effect were recently observed in the charging of a semiconductor quantum box ). It is our hope that the host of signatures provided by this paper will assist in discerning the two scenarios proposed in the literature, once these experimental difficulties are overcome.

## Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Eran Lebanon for many useful discussions and suggestions. This work was supported in part by the Centers of Excellence Program of the Israel science foundation, founded by the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

## A KNCA equations in the absence of coherent propagation between the leads

Equations (42)–(55) were derived for the Hamiltonian of Eq. (12). In this appendix, we specify the corresponding KNCA equations for the Hamiltonian of Eq. (15).

The main modification to the KNCA equations for the Hamiltonian of Eq. (15) comes from the ladder propagators $`D_\pm ^{(\lambda )}`$, which carry an additional lead index $`\alpha =L,R`$. Indeed, contrary to the Hamiltonian of Eq. (12), both the spin and lead indices are conserved along each ladder for the Hamiltonian of Eq. (15). In the absence of an applied magnetic field, when the two spin orientations are equivalent, the resulting ladders are independent of the spin index, but do depend on the lead index.

The adaptation of Eqs. (42)–(49) to the Hamiltonian of Eq. (15) reads

$$D_{\alpha \pm }^r(ϵ)=\frac{g_\alpha P_\alpha ^r(ϵ)}{1g_\alpha P_{\alpha +}^r(ϵ)P_\alpha ^r(ϵ)},$$
(A1)
$$D_{\alpha \pm }^<(ϵ)=\frac{g_\alpha P_\alpha ^<(ϵ)+g_\alpha ^2P_{\alpha \pm }^<(ϵ)\left|P_\alpha ^r(ϵ)\right|^2}{\left|1g_\alpha P_{\alpha +}^r(ϵ)P_\alpha ^r(ϵ)\right|^2},$$
(A2)
where $`g_L`$ and $`g_R`$ are the dimensionless tunneling conductances for the left and right junction, defined in Eq. (19), and

$`P_{\alpha +}^r(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}G_+^r(ϵ^{})f(ϵ^{}ϵ\mu _\alpha )`$ (A4)
$`\times \nu _\alpha (ϵ^{}ϵ\mu _\alpha )dϵ^{},`$
$`P_{\alpha +}^<(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}G_+^<(ϵ^{})f(ϵ^{}+ϵ+\mu _\alpha )`$ (A6)
$`\times \nu _\alpha (ϵ^{}ϵ\mu _\alpha )dϵ^{},`$
$`P_\alpha ^r(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}G_{}^r(ϵ^{})f(ϵ^{}ϵ)\nu _{B\alpha }(ϵ^{}ϵ)𝑑ϵ^{},`$ (A7)
$`P_\alpha ^<(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}G_{}^<(ϵ^{})f(ϵ^{}+ϵ)\nu _{B\alpha }(ϵ^{}ϵ)𝑑ϵ^{}.`$ (A8)
Here we have included the matrix elements of the two end-point vertices within the $`D_{\alpha \pm }`$ ladders, and multiplied $`D_{\alpha +}`$ and $`D_\alpha `$ by $`\rho _\alpha (0)`$ and $`\rho _{B\alpha }(0)`$, respectively. $`\nu _\alpha (ϵ)=\rho _\alpha (ϵ)/\rho _\alpha (0)`$ and $`\nu _{B\alpha }(ϵ)=\rho _{B\alpha }(ϵ)/\rho _{B\alpha }(0)`$ with $`\alpha =L,R`$ are the reduced density of states in the leads and in the box. The resulting pseudo-fermion self-energies acquire the form

$`\mathrm{\Sigma }_+^r(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`2{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha =L,R}{}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}D_{\alpha +}^r(ϵ^{})f(ϵ+ϵ^{}+\mu _\alpha )`$ (A10)
$`\times \nu _\alpha (ϵϵ^{}\mu _\alpha )dϵ^{},`$
$`\mathrm{\Sigma }_+^<(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`2{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha =L,R}{}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}D_{\alpha +}^<(ϵ^{})f(ϵϵ^{}\mu _\alpha )`$ (A12)
$`\times \nu _\alpha (ϵϵ^{}\mu _\alpha )dϵ^{},`$
$`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{}^r(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`2{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha =L,R}{}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}D_\alpha ^r(ϵ^{})f(ϵ+ϵ^{})`$ (A14)
$`\times \nu _{B\alpha }(ϵϵ^{})dϵ^{},`$
$`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{}^<(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`2{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha =L,R}{}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}D_\alpha ^<(ϵ^{})f(ϵϵ^{})`$ (A16)
$`\times \nu _{B\alpha }(ϵϵ^{})dϵ^{},`$
where the extra factor of two comes from summation over the two equivalent spin orientations.

Equations (A1)–(A16) are the complete summation of the KNCA class of diagrams for the pseudo-fermion self-energies, in the case where no coherent propagation is allowed between the leads \[i.e., the Hamiltonian of Eq. (15)\]. They are analogous to Eqs. (42)–(55) for the Hamiltonian of Eq. (12).


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# Variational Analysis for Photonic Molecules

## Abstract

A new type of artificial molecule is proposed, which consists of coupled defect atoms in photonic crystals, named as photonic molecule. Within the major band gap, the photonic molecule confines the resonant modes that are closely analogous to the ground states of molecular orbitals. By employing the variational theory, the constraint determining the resonant coupling is formulated, that is consistent with the results of both the scattering method and the group analysis. In addition, a new type of photonic waveguide is proposed that manipulates the mechanism of photon hopping between photonic molecules and offers a new optical feature of twin waveguiding bandwidths.

In the past decade, photonic defects have attracted much attention owing to their scientific and technological applications in the realization of high-Q microcavities or high transmittance waveguides (WGs) ya0 ; oz ; vi ; me ; me2 ; lin ; bo . A defect atom can be embeded in a photonic crystal by perturbing the dielectricity of a selected crystal “atom”, that has photons with certain frequencies locally trapped within the band gap of the surrounding crystal structure. If defect atoms are embeded by design to form the so called line defect then, within the band gap, it may provide a mechanism of photon propagation via hopping from one defect to its neighbors with a high transmittance ya ; ba1 ; ba2 . Consequently, the integrated optical circuits of functional elements can be realized through skillful integration of photonic defects and WGs, and is expected to offer potential applications in telecommunication ko ; mcg .

A point of importance but of much less attention is that the formation of photonic WGs are conventionally considered as arranging the desired defect atoms along a line, however, this approach has limited the potential of development. We suggest a broader vision of the manipulation of photonic defects through the investigation of photonic molecules that are defined as follows. In photonic crystals, the defect atoms are closely arranged to form a structure that is similar to a real molecule $``$ So named because, within the major band gap, the resonant modes confined by such a structure are closely analogous to the ground states of the molecular orbitals (MOs) of the real molecule. For example, Fig. 1 (a) shows a photonic molecule named as the photonic benzene, whose defect modes are shown in Fig. 3. By employing the variational theory, the constraint determining the resonant coupling of photonic molecule is formulated, that is consistent with the results from those of both the scattering solution and the group analysis. In particular, manipulating the mechanism of photon hopping between photonic benzenes can provide the function of guiding photons along the benzene chain with a high transmittance, and presents a new optical feature of twin waveguiding bandwidths, as shown as Fig 4.

Because of the importance on interpreting the mechanism of defect coupling, there are mainly two solid-state theoretical approaches, the tight-binding (TB) li ; ya ; ba1  and Wannier function methods leu ; al ; ga , have been applied to study the coupled cavities. The photonic version of TB method extends the idea of linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO), in which the defect modes are analogous to the atomic wave function, and suppose that only the nearest-neighbor couplings are relevant to find the dispersion relation for waveguide mode. For the latter, the localized defect modes are expanded by Wannier functions to calculate their intensity variations, where the Wannier functions are calculated by plan-wave method or TB method coupled with supercell approximation. Here, another powerful approach of variational analysis is introduced for many defect-atoms system.

Considering first an electric resonant mode $`𝐄_d(𝐫)`$ of a single defect in a finite-size photonic crystal, the Maxwell equations obeyed by $`𝐄_d(𝐫)`$ can be further simplified as

$$\widehat{𝐇}𝐄_d(𝐫)=ϵ_d(𝐫)(\omega _d/c)^2𝐄_d(𝐫),$$
(1)
where the operator $`\widehat{𝐇}`$ is defined as $`^2`$ for the 2D system or $`\times \times `$ for the 3D system. Also, $`ϵ_d(𝐫)`$ denotes the dielectric constant of the single defect system, and $`\omega _d`$ is the eigenfrequency of the eigenmode $`𝐄_d(𝐫)`$. Those modes occure within the major band gap are most concerned in this paper, and can be taken as real and normalized by

$$<𝐄_d(𝐫)|ϵ_d(𝐫)|𝐄_d(𝐫)>\stackrel{\mathrm{def}}{=}_{domain}ϵ_d(𝐫)𝐄_d(𝐫)𝐄_d(𝐫)𝑑𝐫=1.$$

For the same photonic crystal considered in (1) but embedded with a photonic molecule, the allowed resonant modes are assumed as a superposition of the individual defect mode. Basically, it is analogous to the idea of LCAO, namely

$$𝐄_n(𝐫)=\underset{i=1}{\overset{n_d}{}}C_{ni}𝐄_d(𝐫𝐑_i),$$
(2)
where $`𝐄_n(𝐫)`$ is the nth resonant mode of the photonic molecule, $`n_d`$ the number of defect atoms, $`C_{ni}`$ the undetermined coefficient, and $`𝐑_i`$ the coordinates of the ith defect atom. Similarly, $`𝐄_n(𝐫)`$ satisfies (1) but with $`ϵ_d(𝐫)`$ replaced by the dielectric constant $`ϵ_{pm}(𝐫)`$ of the photonic molecule system, and $`\omega _d`$ replaced by the frequency $`\omega _n`$ of the eigenmode $`𝐄_n(𝐫)`$. That is

$$\widehat{𝐇}𝐄_n(𝐫)=ϵ_{pm}(𝐫)(\omega _n/c)^2𝐄_n(𝐫).$$
(3)
Equation (2) associated with (3) is a linear variational problem. Assigning different coefficient $`C_{ni}`$ to each mode $`E_d`$ may create different $`E_n`$, but the structure of photonic molecule will decide which resonant modes are allowed. This inference will be reflected on restricting $`C_{ni}`$ to satisfy the minimum of functional frequency, defined as

$$\mathrm{\Omega }(C_{ni})\stackrel{\mathrm{def}}{=}\frac{𝐄_n(𝐫)\left|\widehat{𝐇}\right|𝐄_n(𝐫)}{𝐄_n(𝐫)|ϵ_{pm}(𝐫)|𝐄_n(𝐫)}=\frac{_{ij}C_{ni}C_{nj}𝐇_{ij}}{_{ij}C_{ni}C_{nj}𝐒_{ij}}.$$

Namely, $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is equivalent to the familiar Rayleigh-Ritz principle. Here $`𝐇_{ij}`$ and $`𝐒_{ij}`$ denote, respectively, the elements of the Hamiltonian matrix and the overlap matrix. According to (1) and (2), $`𝐇_{ij}`$ can be written as

$`𝐇_{ij}=𝐄_d\left(𝐫𝐑_i\right)\left|\widehat{𝐇}\right|𝐄_d\left(𝐫𝐑_j\right)`$
$`=`$ $`\{\begin{array}{cc}\left(\omega _d/c\right)^2=\alpha ,\text{for }i=j;\hfill & \\ \left(\omega _d/c\right)^2\beta _1,\text{for }(i,j)\text{ being the nearest-neighbor};\hfill & \\ \left(\omega _d/c\right)^2\beta _2,\text{for }(i,j)\text{ being the second-neighbor};\hfill & \\ \left(\omega _d/c\right)^2\beta _3,\text{for }(i,j)\text{ being the third-neighbor},\hfill & \end{array}`$
where $`\beta _{(ij)}=<𝐄_d(𝐫𝐑_i)|ϵ_d(𝐫𝐑_j)|𝐄_d(𝐫𝐑_j)>`$ denotes the hopping integral, whose magnitude measures the coupling strength and decays rapidly with increasing the distance $`|𝐑_i𝐑_j|`$, i.e. $`|\beta _1|>|\beta _2|>|\beta _3|`$ (the more the defect sites split, the weaker their coupling ta ). Therefore, hopping terms can be classified according to the separation of the coupled defects. Here, only three relevant hopping terms are considered. Moreover, under the assumption that each individual defect mode is highly localized around its defect site, the field overlap between different defect atoms is small and the overlap integral $`𝐒_{ij}`$ can thus be approximated as

$$𝐒_{ij}=<𝐄_d(𝐫𝐑_i)|ϵ_{pm}(𝐫)|𝐄_d(𝐫𝐑_j)>\delta _{ij}.$$
(4)
Now, vary $`C_{ni}`$ to minimize the functional frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, with the necessary condition of $`\mathrm{\Omega }/C_{ni}=0`$, $`i=1,2,\mathrm{},n_d`$. One can obtain

$$\underset{j=1}{\overset{n_d}{}}\left[𝐇_{ij}\left(\omega _n/c\right)^2\delta _{ij}\right]C_{nj}=0.$$

The constrain of resonant frequencies can thus be derived from the solvability condition of $`C_{ni}`$. This leads to

$$det\left[𝐇_{ij}\left(\omega _n/c\right)^2\delta _{ij}\right]=0.$$
(5)
Equation (5) indicates that the allowed resonant frequencies in a given photonic molecule are dominated by hopping integrals. Furthermore, these hopping terms are dependent upon the dielectric structure of the photonic molecule. Therefore, every resonant mode is characterized by photonic molecule and exhibits different optical transmittance. To check the accuracy of Eq. (5), we first apply Eq. (5) to the photonic benzene, that yields

$`\left|\begin{array}{cccccc}\alpha \gamma & \stackrel{~}{\beta }_1& \stackrel{~}{\beta }_2& \stackrel{~}{\beta }_3& \stackrel{~}{\beta }_2& \stackrel{~}{\beta }_1\\ \stackrel{~}{\beta }_1& \alpha \gamma & \stackrel{~}{\beta }_1& \stackrel{~}{\beta }_2& \stackrel{~}{\beta }_3& \stackrel{~}{\beta }_2\\ \stackrel{~}{\beta }_2& \stackrel{~}{\beta }_1& \alpha \gamma & \stackrel{~}{\beta }_1& \stackrel{~}{\beta }_2& \stackrel{~}{\beta }_3\\ \stackrel{~}{\beta }_3& \stackrel{~}{\beta }_2& \stackrel{~}{\beta }_1& \alpha \gamma & \stackrel{~}{\beta }_1& \stackrel{~}{\beta }_2\\ \stackrel{~}{\beta }_2& \stackrel{~}{\beta }_3& \stackrel{~}{\beta }_2& \stackrel{~}{\beta }_1& \alpha \gamma & \stackrel{~}{\beta }_1\\ \stackrel{~}{\beta }_1& \stackrel{~}{\beta }_2& \stackrel{~}{\beta }_3& \stackrel{~}{\beta }_2& \stackrel{~}{\beta }_1& \alpha \gamma \end{array}\right|=0,`$ (6)
where we let $`\gamma =(\omega _n/c)^2`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\beta }_i=(\omega _d/c)^2\beta _i`$ for simplification. The determinant in Eq. (6) is called the 6th-order circulant, and is equivalent to

$$\underset{n=1}{\overset{6}{}}\left[\left(\alpha \gamma \right)+e_n\stackrel{~}{\beta }_1+e_n^2\stackrel{~}{\beta }_2+e_n^3\stackrel{~}{\beta }_3+e_n^4\stackrel{~}{\beta }_2+e_n^5\stackrel{~}{\beta }_1\right]=0,$$

where $`e_1,e_2\mathrm{}e_6`$ are the six roots of unity, i.e. $`e_n=exp(2\pi in/6)`$. Hence, for $`n=1\mathrm{}6`$, the frequencies $`\omega _n`$ of the six resonant modes $`𝐄_n`$ can be found as

$$\omega _n=\omega _d\sqrt{1+2\mathrm{cos}\frac{2\pi n}{6}\beta _1+2\mathrm{cos}\frac{2\pi n}{3}\beta _2+(1)^n\beta _3}.$$
(7)
Obviously, Eq. (7) indicates that there are two doubly-degenerate frequencies with $`n=1,5`$ and $`n=2,4`$, and two nondegenerate frequencies with $`n=3`$ and $`n=6`$, thus, four high-Q resonant frequencies will occur within the major band gap. From the view point of the symmetry group , the photonic benzene belongs to the point group $`C_{6v}`$ for the 2D or $`D_{6h}`$ for the 3D systems, whose irreducible representation $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ on defect sites can be reduced to the decomposition $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=A_1+B_2+E_1+E_2`$ or $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=A_{2u}+B_{2g}+E_{1g}+E_{2u}`$, respectively. Exactly speaking, it again illustrates two doubly degenerate modes of $`E_1`$ (or $`E_{1g}`$) and $`E_2`$ (or $`E_{2u}`$), and two nondegenerate modes of $`A_1`$ (or $`A_{2u}`$) and $`B_2`$ (or $`B_{2g}`$). Furthermore, these predictions are also consistent with the numerical solution of Eq. (3), that is calculated by scattering method (cf. ta ). The resultant transmission for the 2D case is plotted in Fig. 2, and the allowed resonant modes are shown in Fig. 3, where we consider a 2D finite-size hexagonal photonic crystal with a dielectric contrast ratio $`8.4/1.0`$ (rod/background) and a radius-to-spacing ratio $`0.4/4.0`$. The defect radius $`\rho `$ is taken as zero.

Figure 2 shows four nomalized resonant frequencies $`0.369`$, $`0.375`$, $`0.455`$ and $`0.508`$, that split from $`\omega _d=0.419`$ due to the defect coupling in a photonic benzene. By substituting these five frequencies into Eq. (7), the hopping terms $`\beta _1`$, $`\beta _2`$ and $`\beta _3`$ can be calculated by least-squares method, and they are $`0.178`$, $`0.051`$ and $`0.010`$. Table I summarizes four cases of defect sizes, in which the all values of hopping parameters achieve the accuracy of two decimal places for Eq. (7). It clearly shows that the larger the defect radius is, the smaller hopping parameters. This means that the defect couplings in photonic benzene become weaker as the defect radius is increased. Moreover, when the defect radius $`\rho `$ is increased up to about $`0.2`$, the property of four transmission peaks disappeares, owing to that the shallow perturbation of dielectricity for defect atoms will create shallow modes ya0 .

In fact, Eq. (3) is equivalent to the effective Shr$`\ddot{o}`$dinger equation of H$`\ddot{u}`$ckel $`\pi `$electron theory (developed in 1931 hu ), if we make the resonant modes of 3D photonic benzene be analogous to the $`\pi `$electrons of benzene molecule. However, Eq. (3) is much simpler. Theoretically, the $`\pi `$-electrons arise from a planar unsaturated organic molecule whose MOs can be divided into the $`\sigma `$ and $`\pi `$ MOs according to the reflection symmetry in the molecular plane. Both systems belong to the same point group $`D_{6h}`$ and have the same degeneracy (cf. at , p.261), but possess completely different meanings. Conceptually, the photonic molecule acts as a perfect model of artificial molecule, since the resonant modes are much easier to be realized than the bonding orbitals of real molecule. Similar phenomena can also be found in the quantum-dot molecules pi  or the coupled pairs of GaAs cavities (note that these systems are also termed as photonic molecule, cf. Bayer et al. bayer ). Fig. 3 shows the lowest resonant modes allowed in a 2D photonic benzene with $`\rho =0.0`$, and they are labelled according to the symmetry species of the group $`C_{6v}`$, which are analogous to the six $`\pi `$ MOs of benzene molecule but is lacking of the $`C_{1h}`$ symmetry.

Most importantly, by applying the modular concept of photonic benzene can create photonic WGs, and we called these WGs as benzene WGs. In the chemistry terminology, benzene WGs can be classified as $`\pi `$ and $`\sigma `$ types corresponding to the bonding types between two real benzene rings, as illustrated in Fig. 1 (b) & (c). It is remarkable that transmission of the benzene WGs reveals the special feature of a twin waveguiding bandwidths marked as $`\mathrm{}\omega _\alpha `$ and $`\mathrm{}\omega _\beta `$, where $`\mathrm{}\omega _\alpha <\mathrm{}\omega _\beta `$, as shown in Fig. 4. This means that the benzene WGs are able to provide two working bandwidths at the same time. In addition, Fig. 5 shows that a TM light with the $`E_2`$ mode travels through a $`90^o`$ bend from the $`\pi `$ type to the $`\sigma `$ type. Of course, the same phenomenon can also be observed in other modes.

In conclusion, we suggest a new and practicable idea for the manipulation of photonic defects, that includes the so-called photonic molecule and benzene WG. The optical properties of photonic molecules has been investigated by variational theory, which shows that the allowed resonant frequencies inside a photonic molecule are dominated by hopping parameters through the constraint (5). Taking the photonic benzene as an example, six resonant modes with two doubly-degenerate and two nondegenerate are found and verified by both of the scattering method and group theory. Especially, the benzene WGs created by the modular manipulation of photonic benzenes are demonstrated to possess the interesting feature of a twin waveguiding bandwidths. Namely, benzene WGs provide two working bandwidths at the same time and make the function of guiding photons more flexible.

This work is supported in part by the Global Fiberoptics, Inc.