TUNNELING SPECTROSCOPY OF QUANTUM CHARGE FLUCTUATIONS IN THE COULOMB BLOCKADE

TL;DR

This paper develops a theoretical framework for understanding Coulomb blockade oscillations in double quantum dot systems, linking conductance peaks to charge fluctuations and predicting temperature-dependent behaviors.

Contribution

It provides an analytical study of Coulomb blockade oscillations in quantum dots, including strong and weak tunneling regimes, and predicts a doubling of peak periods and power-law temperature dependence.

Findings

Peak period doubles as tunneling decreases.

Strong tunneling leads to power-law temperature dependence.

Conductance peaks relate to charge fluctuation dynamics.

Abstract

We present a theory of Coulomb blockade oscillations in tunneling through a pair of quantum dots connected by a tunable tunneling junction. The positions and amplitudes of peaks in the linear conductance are directly related, respectively, to the ground state energy and to the dynamics of charge fluctuations. We study analytically both strong and weak interdot tunneling. As the tunneling decreases, the period of the peaks doubles, as observed experimentally. In the strong tunneling limit, we predict a striking power law temperature dependence of the peak amplitudes.