RKKY and magnetic field interactions in coupled Kondo quantum dots

Abstract

We investigate theoretically the transport properties of two independent artificial Kondo impurities. They are coupled together via a tunable Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yoshida (RKKY) interaction. For strong enough antiferromagnetic RKKY interaction, the impurity density of states increases with the applied in-plane magnetic field. This effect can be used to distinguish between antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic RKKY interactions. These results may be relevant to explain some features of recent experiments by Craig et al. (cond-mat/0404213).