Self-induction and magnetic effects in electron transport through a photon cavity

TL;DR

This study investigates higher order dynamical effects in electron transport through a quantum wire with a quantum dot in a photon cavity, revealing small but significant magnetic and electric multipole influences dependent on cavity field polarization.

Contribution

It provides a detailed numerical analysis of higher order electron-photon interactions beyond the dipole approximation in a quantum transport system within a magnetic field.

Findings

Quadrupole and magnetic dipole effects depend on cavity polarization.

Weak self-induction effects are observed when polarization aligns with transport.

Dipole approximation with diamagnetic correction suffices for modeling electron-photon interactions.

Abstract

We explore higher order dynamical effects in the transport through a two-dimensional nanoscale electron system embedded in a three-dimensional far-infrared photon cavity. The nanoscale system is considered to be a short quantum wire with a single circular quantum dot defined in a GaAs heterostructure. The whole system, the external leads and the central system are placed in a constant perpendicular magnetic field. The Coulomb interaction of the electrons, the para- and diamagnetic electron-photon interactions are all treated by a numerically exact diagonalization using step-wise truncations of the appropriate many-body Fock spaces. We focus on the difference in transport properties between a description within an electric dipole approximation and a description including all higher order terms in a single photon mode model. We find small effects mostly caused by an electrical quadrupole and a magnetic dipole terms that depend strongly on the polarization of the cavity field with respect to the transport direction and the photon energy. When the polarization is aligned along the transport direction we find indications of a weak self-induction that we analyze and compare to the classical counterpart, and the self-energy contribution of high-order interaction terms to the states the electrons cascade through on their way through the system. Like expected the electron-photon interaction is well described in the dipole approximation when it is augmented by the lowest order diamagnetic part for a nanoscale system in a cavity in an external magnetic field.