Quantum Impurity Physics in Coupled Quantum Dots

Glossary Quantum dot device: nanoscopic electronic device resembling a transistor which incorporates a quantum dot as the central active element; sometimes also called single electron transistor. A quantum dot is an extremely small puddle of electrons which can be considered as an artificial atom since the confinement of electrons leads to quantized energy levels: the electrons form orbitals much like the electrons in orbit around an atomic nucleus. Gate-defined semiconductor quantum dots provide precisely tunable physical realizations of quantum impurity models. Quantum impurity system: system of a localized magnetic impurity in interaction with itinerant free electrons from a conduction band of an otherwise clean metal. It can be described using an idealized quantum impurity model such as Kondo or Anderson model.