Coulomb blockade in triangular lateral small-size quantum dots

An AlGaAs/GaAs lateral quantum dot of triangular shape with a characteristic size L<100 nm containing less than ten electrons was studied. Single-electron oscillations of the conductance G of this dot were measured at G<e²/h. When going from Ge²/h to G≈0.5e²/h, a decrease was found not only in the amplitude but also in the period of the oscillations. A calculation of the 3D-electrostatics demonstrated that this effect is due to a change in the dot size produced by control voltages.     

In-plane and perpendicular tunneling through InAs quantum dots

A Schottky diode with InAs dots in the intrinsic GaAs region was used to investigate perpendicular tunneling (in growth direction) through InAs quantum dots (QDs). At forward bias conditions electrons tunnel from the ohmic back contact into the metal Schottky gate. Peaks appear in the differential conductance when a QD level comes into resonance with the Fermi-level of the n-doped region. The observed tunneling features are attributed to electron transport through the s- and p-shell of the InAs islands. In our in-plane tunneling experiments the islands were embedded in the channel region of an n-doped GaAs/AlGaAs HEMT-structure. In order to study tunneling through single InAs islands, a quantum point contact was defined by lithography with an atomic force microscope and subsequent wet-chemical etching. In contrast to unpatterned devices sharp peaks appear in the I–V characteristic of our samples reflecting the transport of electrons through the p-shell of a single InAs QD.     

Coulomb blockade in molecular quantum dots

The rate-equation approach is used to describe sequential tunneling through a molecular junction in the Coulomb blockade regime. Such device is composed of molecular quantum dot (with discrete energy levels) coupled with two metallic electrodes via potential barriers. Based on this model, we calculate nonlinear transport characteristics (conductance-voltage and current-voltage dependences) and compare them with the results obtained within a self-consistent field approach. It is shown that the shape of transport characteristics is determined by the combined effect of the electronic structure of molecular quantum dots and by the Coulomb blockade. In particular, the following phenomena are discussed in detail: the suppression of the current at higher voltages, the charging-induced rectification effect, the charging-generated changes of conductance gap and the temperature-induced as well as broadening-generated smoothing of current steps.     

Transport properties of a lateral semiconductor quantum dot defined by a single connected metallic front-gate

We present studies on the electric transport in a lateral GaAs/AlGaAs quantum dot defined by a patterned single connected metallic front-gate. This gate design allows to easily couple a large number of quantum dots and therefore holds high potential in the design of new materials with tailor-made band structures based on quantum dot superlattices of controlled shape. Clear Coulomb diamond structures and well pronounced tunneling peaks observed in experiment indicate that single-electron control has been achieved. However, the dependence on electron density in the heterostructure embedding the dot, which is controlled by an additional back-gate, reveals that transport characteristics are strongly influenced supposedly by potential fluctuations in the dot and lead regions.     

Power output and efficiency of quantum dot attached to ferromagnetic electrodes with non-collinear magnetic moments

Non-linear charge and heat transport through a single-level quantum dot in the Coulomb blockade regime is investigated within the framework of non-equilibrium Green function formalism and power output and efficiency of the device are studied. It is found that maximum power as well as efficiency depends on the relative orientation of magnetic moments in electrodes and can vary with polarization factor p. In general, power output is suppressed in magnetic systems and decreases with polarization. The highest efficiency can be attained in antiparallel configuration, and moreover, it does not depend on p. Spin power as well as spin efficiency of the system is introduced and discussed. It is also shown that in the Coulomb blockade regime the (spin) efficiency of the device operating under maximum power conditions varies with temperature bias in a non-monotonic way and shows a flat maximum for low ΔT.     

Quantum fluctuations and the Kondo effect in small quantum dots

We consider electron transport through quantum dots with large level spacing and charging energy. At low temperature and strong coupling to the leads, quantum fluctuations and the Kondo effect become important. They show up, e.g., as zero-bias anomalies in the current–voltage characteristics. We use a recently developed diagrammatic technique as well as a new real-time renormalization-group approach to describe charge and spin fluctuations. The latter gives rise to a Kondo-assisted enhancement of the current through the dot as seen in experiments.     

Carbon nanotubes as building blocks of quantum dots

Quantum dots have been fabricated with single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), and their transport properties have been measured at low temperatures. The single-electron transport measurements revealed the artificial atom characteristics with a shell structure and the Zeeman splitting of single particle states. They have been observed with the metallic SWCNT that includes many electrons, in striking contrast to the case of semiconductor artificial atoms that have a few electrons. The unique features in the SWCNT artificial atom are discussed in terms of the energy scales associated with the quantum dot.     

Optical properties of two-electron quantum dots in low lying para- and ortho-states

Two low lying energy levels of 3D two-electron quantum dot with rigid confinement (the wave functions vanish at the surface of the quantum dot) are obtained by the variational and perturbation methods. There are two kind of quantum dots: para- and ortho-dots with antiparallel and parallel electron spins, respectively. An ensemble of the two-electron quantum dots contains para-dots in the ground state and ortho-dots in the lowest metastable state at low enough temperatures. The optical parameters of GaAs two-electron quantum dot are calculated with the help of obtained energy levels and compared with the optical parameters known for the one electron GaAs quantum dot. The Coulomb interaction between electrons is responsible for the blue shift of maxima of the absorption coefficient and refractive index of two-electron quantum dots.     

Electronic properties of semiconductor quantum dots for Coulomb blockade applications

This paper deals with the electronic properties of Si and Ge nanocrystals (NCs) with a view to studying their potentialities for single electron devices. The 3D Poisson–Schrödinger equations are self-consistently solved for a single NC embedded in SiO₂. A 1D spherical approximation is compared to the full 3D approach. For various shapes and sizes of NC the energy levels and the density are calculated as a function of the applied voltage and the number of electrons stored in the NC. The potential properties of such nanostructures for Coulomb blockade operation are deduced.     

Lateral electron transport through single InAs quantum dots grown by molecular beam epitaxy

The transport properties of single InAs quantum dots (QDs) grown by molecular beam epitaxy have been investigated by metallic leads with nanogaps. It was found that the uncapped InAs QDs grown on the GaAs surfaces show metallic conductivities, indicating that even the exposed QDs are not depleted. On the contrary, it was found that no current flows through the exposed wetting layers. For the case of the QDs covered with GaAs capping layers, clear Coulomb gaps and Coulomb staircases have been observed at 4.2 K.     

A mean field approach to Coulomb blockade for a disordered assembly of quantum dots

The Coulomb blockade (CB) in quantum dots (QDs) is by now well documented. It has been used to guide the fabrication of single electron transistors. Even the most sophisticated techniques for synthesizing QDs (e.g. MOCVD/MBE) result in an assembly in which a certain amount of disorder is inevitable. On the other hand, theoretical approaches to CB limit themselves to an analysis of a single QD. In the present work we consider two types of disorders: (i) size disorder; e.g. QDs have a distribution of sizes which could be unimodal or bimodal in nature. (ii) Potential disorder with the confining potential assuming a variety of shapes depending on growth condition and external fields. We assume a Gaussian distribution in disorder in both size and potential and employ a simplified mean field theory. To do this we rely on the scaling laws for the CB (also termed as Hubbard U) obtained for an isolated QD [1]. We analyze the distribution in the Hubbard U as a consequence of disorder and observe that Coulomb blockade is partially suppressed by the disorder. Further, the distribution in U is a skewed Gaussian with enhanced broadening.      

Inter-dot coupling effects on transport through correlated parallel coupled quantum dots

Transport through symmetric parallel coupled quantum dot system has been studied, using non-equilibrium Green function formalism. The inter-dot tunnelling with on-dot and inter-dot Coulomb repulsion is included. The transmission coefficient and Landaur-Buttiker like current formula are shown in terms of internal states of quantum dots. The effect of inter-dot tunnelling on transport properties has been explored. Results, in intermediate inter-dot coupling regime show signatures of merger of two dots to form a single composite dot and in strong coupling regime the behaviour of the system resembles the two decoupled dots.      

Rashba效应影响下量子点中弱耦合束缚极化子的性质

采用改进的线性组合算符和幺正变换的方法研究了Rashba效应影响下量子点中弱耦合束缚极化子的性质,导出了Rashba效应影响下量子点中弱耦合束缚极化子的振动频率、有效质量、基态分裂能和相互作用能。数值计算结果表明随Rashba自旋-轨道耦合常数的增加,由于声子作用产生的附加能量能对零磁场时自旋分裂能的影响占有绝对优势。库仑势对束缚极化子的基态能量的影响同时也占有绝对优势。所以,研究Rashba自旋轨道相互作时声子的影响不可忽略。     

Rashba效应影响下量子点中弱耦合束缚极化子的性质

采用改进的线性组合算符和幺正变换的方法研究了Rashba效应影响下量子点中弱耦合束缚极化子的性质,导出了Rashba效应影响下量子点中弱耦合束缚极化子的振动频率、有效质量、基态分裂能和相互作用能。数值计算结果表明随Rashba自旋-轨道耦合常数的增加,由于声子作用产生的附加能量能对零磁场时自旋分裂能的影响占有绝对优势。库仑势对束缚极化子的基态能量的影响同时也占有绝对优势。所以,研究Rashba自旋轨道相互作时声子的影响不可忽略。     

Intersubband optical absorptions of a two-electron quantum ring

In this Letter, the optical properties of a quantum ring with two electrons are studied. Its effective-mass Hamiltonian matrix was diagonalized with numerical methods, followed by the calculations of a number of optical quantities. We have found that the intersubband optical absorptions strongly depends on the ring radius, electron-electron interaction, and the incident optical intensity. We also found that the spin-singlet states are more sensitive to ring radius than the spin-triplet states.     

Majorana fermion modulated nonequilibrium transport through double quantum dots

Nonequilibrium electronic transports through a double-QD-Majorana coupling system are studied with a purpose to extract the information to identify Majorana bound states (MBSs). It is found that MBSs can help form various transport processes, including the nonlocal crossed Andreev reflection, local resonant Andreev reflection, and cotunneling, depending on the relative position of two dot levels. These processes enrich the signature of average currents and noise correlations to probe the nature of MBSs. We further demonstrate the switching between the current peaks of crossed Andreev reflection and cotunneling, which is closely related to the nonlocal nature of Majorana fermions. We also propose effective physical pictures to understand these Majorana-assisted transports.     

Signature of symmetry of laterally coupled quantum dots in far-infrared spectrum

We study the effect of structure asymmetry on the energy spectrum and the far-infrared spectrum (FIR) of a lateral coupled quantum dot. The calculated spectrum shows that the parity break of coupled quantum dot results in more coherent superpositions in the low-lying states and exhibits unique anti-crossing in the two-electron FIR spectrum modulated by a magnetic field. We also find that the Coulomb correlation effect can make the FIR spectrum of coupled quantum dot without strict parity deviate greatly from Kohn theorem, which is just contrary to the symmetric case. Our results therefore suggest that FIR spectrum may be used to determine the symmetry of coupled quantum dot and to evaluate the degree of Coulomb interaction.