Abstract

Electron tunneling through a double quantum-dot molecule, in the Kondo regime, under the effect of a magnetic field and an applied voltage, is studied. This system possesses a complex response to the applied fields characterized by a tristable solution for the conductance. The different nature of the solutions are studied in and out thermodynamical equilibrium. It is shown that the interdot coupling and the fields can be used to control the region of multistability. The mean-field slave-boson formalism is used to obtain the solution for the problem. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.