Solid State Communications 323 (2021) 114116 Available online 16 October 2020 0038-1098/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Solid State Communications journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ssc Rashba effect on the electronic transport through a quantum dot in the atomic limit Elcivan dos Santos, H.O. Frota, Angsula Ghosh ∗ Department of Physics, Federal University of Amazonas, 69077-000 Manaus, AM, Brazil ARTICLE INFO Communicated by Asgari Reza Keywords: Electronic transport Quantum-dot Rashba interaction ABSTRACT We study the behavior of a quantum dot attached to two electrodes with localized spin–orbit (Rashba) interactions. Using the Anderson model we report the occupation number, specific heat, susceptibility and conductance in the zero-band width limit. We compare our results with those in the absence of the Rashba interactions. The symmetry and regime of various phases demonstrate a strong dependence on the above interactions. 1. Introduction Quantum dots (QD), a few nanometers in size, have been at the forefront of research recently due to their unique electronic, opti- cal, magnetic and catalytic properties. They are essential not only in diagnostic imaging, biosensors, drug delivery [1–5] but also in several other technological developments like solar cells, LED, lasers and quantum computing [6,7]. They are generally semiconductors, metals or metal oxides [8]. However, semiconductor quantum dots have drawn a lot of attention due to its distinct ‘‘quantum size effects’’. Heretofore, chemistry, physics, and materials science have provided methods for the production of quantum dots with tighter control of several associative factors, like, solubility, particle growth, size and emission properties. Several methods are employed for QD gener- ation including heating/combustion [9–11], hydrothermal [12,13], microwave/ultrasonic [14–16], acid oxidation [17–19], laser obla- tion [20,21] etc. Spin-related phenomena play an important role especially in prob- lems related to transport properties in low-dimensional systems. A spin-polarized field effect transistor based on the Rashba interaction has motivated various works in narrow gap semiconductors where the gate voltage of the device could be used to modulate the above interaction [22]. Spin–orbit interactions in quantum dots related to electron confinement and symmetry breaking are introduced by the Rashba/Dresselhaus terms. The interaction not only depends on the characteristic of the material but also can be modified by an external electric field. The experimental data [23] on few-electron quantum dots have been studied using Rashba spin–orbit coupling and exchange interaction [24]. The correlation effects in few-electron lateral quantum ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: angsula@ufam.edu.br (A. Ghosh). dot in a fully interacting Hamiltonian of electrons confined in a quan- tum dot [25,26] have been explored. Rashba dots in a metallic host in the presence of Coulomb interaction was considered to investigate the transport properties [27,28] using the Anderson Hamiltonian. Most of the existing theoretical studies of the spin–orbit coupling in QDs are based on numerical simulations or perturbative methods. Our solution provides an insight to the model based on analytical solutions. In this work we consider the quasi-zero dimensional quantum dot connected to two-electrodes with Rashba interaction. We investigate in detail the effect of the Rashba interactions of the leads on the electronic, thermodynamic and transport properties of the system. An onsite Coulomb interaction and the hybridization also plays an impor- tant role in modifying the characteristics of the system. The paper is organized is as follows. In Section 2, the Anderson impurity model [29] with the Rashba interactions in the zero-band width limit has been discussed. In Section 3 the occupation numbers along with the specific heat, susceptibility and the conductance values are analyzed. Finally a short summary on our results is depicted in Section 4. 2. Model The model Hamiltonian is given by  =   +   +   (1) where   = ∑ ,    ,    † ,    ,   + ∑ ,      † ,   (      −       ,   ) (2) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssc.2020.114116 Received 6 August 2020; Received in revised form 12 October 2020; Accepted 13 October 2020