Thermally induced subgap features in the cotunneling spectroscopy of a carbon nanotube

TL;DR

This study investigates how temperature influences subgap features in cotunneling spectroscopy of a carbon nanotube quantum dot with superconducting contacts, revealing thermal replicas of cotunneling peaks.

Contribution

It introduces a transport theory explaining temperature-dependent subgap features, including thermal replicas, in cotunneling spectroscopy of carbon nanotube quantum dots.

Findings

Observation of temperature-enhanced subgap features

Identification of thermal replicas of cotunneling peaks

Agreement between theory and experimental results

Abstract

We report on nonlinear cotunneling spectroscopy of a carbon nanotube quantum dot coupled to Nb superconducting contacts. Our measurements show rich subgap features in the stability diagram which become more pronounced as the temperature is increased. Applying a transport theory based on the Liouville-von Neumann equation for the density matrix, we show that the transport properties can be attributed to processes involving sequential as well as elastic and inelastic cotunneling of quasiparticles thermally excited across the gap. In particular, we predict thermal replicas of the elastic and inelastic cotunneling peaks, in agreement with our experimental results.