Conductance Peak Distributions in Quantum Dots at Finite Temperature: Signatures of the Charging Energy

TL;DR

This paper derives universal finite temperature conductance peak distributions in quantum dots, revealing how charging energy influences peak behavior at temperatures comparable to the mean level spacing.

Contribution

It introduces a new universal distribution model for conductance peaks at finite temperature, highlighting the effects of charging energy and charge quantization.

Findings

Distributions depend only on symmetry class and temperature in units of level spacing.

Significant deviations from low-temperature distributions occur when temperature is comparable to level spacing.

Charging energy signatures become prominent at higher temperatures.

Abstract

We derive the finite temperature conductance peak distributions and peak-to-peak correlations for quantum dots in the Coulomb blockade regime assuming the validity of random matrix theory. The distributions are universal, depending only on the symmetry class and the temperature measured in units of the mean level spacing, $\Delta$. When the temperature is comparable to $\Delta$ several resonances contribute to the same conductance peak and we find significant deviations from the previously known $T \ll \Delta$ distributions. In contrast to the $T \ll \Delta$ case, these distributions show a strong signature of the charging energy and charge quantization on the dot.