Transport properties of semiconducting nanocrystal arrays at low temperatures

TL;DR

This paper investigates electron transport in semiconducting nanocrystal arrays at very low temperatures, emphasizing the dominance of co-tunneling processes and the suppression of inelastic contributions, with comparisons to experimental data.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of elastic and inelastic co-tunneling in nanocrystal arrays, highlighting the suppression of inelastic processes at low temperatures.

Findings

Inelastic co-tunneling is strongly suppressed at low temperatures.

Elastic co-tunneling dominates electron transport in the studied regime.

Results align with available experimental observations.

Abstract

We study the electron transport in semiconducting nanocrystal arrays at temperatures $T\ll E_c$, where $E_c$ is the charging energy for a single grain. In this temperature range the electron transport is dominated by co-tunneling processes. We discuss both elastic and inelastic co-tunneling and show that for semiconducting nanocrystal arrays the inelastic contribution is strongly suppressed at low temperatures. We also compare our results with available experimental data.