Strongly correlated multilayered nanostructures near the Mott transition

Abstract

We examine devices constructed out of multilayered sandwiches of semi-infinite metal--barrier--semi-infinite metal, with the barrier tuned to lie near the quantum critical point of the Mott metal-insulator transition. By employing dynamical mean field theory, we are able to solve the many-body problem exactly (within the local approximation) and determine the density of states through the nanostructure and the charge transport perpendicular to the planes. We introduce a generalization of the Thouless energy that describes the crossover from tunneling to incoherent thermally activated transport.