Observation of scaling behavior in a Coulomb blockade system

TL;DR

This paper investigates how charge fluctuations affect electron transport in quantum dots, demonstrating a scaling behavior of charging energy consistent with Luttinger liquid theory through two experiments.

Contribution

It provides experimental evidence of scaling behavior in Coulomb blockade systems and compares results with a Luttinger liquid theoretical model.

Findings

Charging energy scales with conductance as predicted by theory

Transition from single to double quantum-dot behavior observed

Good agreement between experimental data and Luttinger liquid predictions

Abstract

We describe two experiments to study the influence of fluctuations in the electron charge on the transport properties of a quantum dot. First, we scan a device from single- to double quantum-dot behavior by varying the conductance of a connecting point contact. Second, we measure the dependence of the charging energy on the conductance of the barriers. The experiments are compared with traces obtained from a theory based on a Luttinger liquid type description. This theory predicts a scaling behaviour of the charging energy, in good agreement with our experiments.