Temperature independent current deficit due to induced quantum nanowire vibrations

TL;DR

This paper investigates how vibrational modes in a suspended nanowire, coupled with a magnetic field, cause a voltage- and temperature-independent current deficit, revealing novel electron-vibron interaction effects.

Contribution

It demonstrates a voltage-independent current offset caused by nanowire vibrations and analyzes the decay of vibrational back-action effects at high voltages.

Findings

Current offset is independent of bias voltage and temperature at high voltages.

Vibrational back-action effects decay exponentially at high voltages.

Vibrational modes influence the current-voltage characteristics through electron-vibron coupling.

Abstract

We consider electronic transport through a suspended voltage-biased nanowire. By coupling the tunneling current to a transverse magnetic field, vibrational modes of the wire are excited which influences the current-voltage characteristics of the system in novel ways through the induced electron-vibron interaction. From this analysis, we find that at high voltages the current through the suspended nanowire is offset from its non-vibrating ohmic value by an amount that is independent of both bias voltage and temperature. We also show that the corrections to the current from the back-action of the vibrating wire decay exponentially in the limit of high voltage, a result that holds even if the nanowire vibrational modes have been driven out of thermal equilibrium.