Inherent asymmetry in the tunneling barriers of few-electron quantum dots induces intrinsically different tunneling currents for forward and reverse source-drain biases in the non-linear transport regime. Here we show that in addition to spin selection rules, overlap matrix elements between many-body states are crucial for the correct description of tunneling transmission through quantum dots at large magnetic fields. Signatures of excited (N-1)-electron states in the transport process through the N-electron system are clearly identified in the measured transconductances. Our analysis clearly confirms the validity of single-electron quantum transport theory in quantum dots.
We employ ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy to directly monitor electron tunneling between discrete orbital states in a pair of spatially separated quantum dots. Immediately after excitation, several peaks are observed in the pump-probe spectrum due to Coulomb interactions between the photo-generated charge carriers. By tuning the relative energy of the orbital states in the two dots and monitoring the temporal evolution of the pump-probe spectra the electron and hole tunneling times are separately measured and resonant tunneling between the two dots is shown to be mediated both by elastic and…
We prepare a triple quantum dot with a separate contact lead to each dot to study Pauli spin blockade in the tunnel-coupled three dots in a row. We measure the tunneling current flowing between the center dot and either the left or right dot with the left and right leads as a common source and the center lead as a drain. In the biased stability diagram, we establish Pauli spin blockade in the respective neighboring dots, with features similarly obtained in double quantum dot systems. We further realize Pauli spin blockade with two different conditions by tuning the inter-dot coupling gates: st…
We consider the transition of electron between two quantum dots in which the discrete levels are swept past each other with a constant velocity. If a direct tunneling between the dot levels was allowed, an electron will be transferred between the dots when the levels cross. This transfer is described in terms of the conventional Landau-Zener theory. We assume that direct tunneling between the dots is forbidden. Rather, the transfer is due to the resonant tunneling via a discrete impurity level separating the dots. Then the description of the electron transfer reduces to a threestate (two dots …
We theoretically study the effects of bias-controlled interdot tunneling in vertically coupled quantum dots on the emission properties of spin excitons in various bias-controlled tunneling regimes. As a main result, for strongly coupled dots we predict substantial reduction of optical fine structure splitting without any drop in the optical oscillator strength. This special reduction diminishes the distinguibility of polarized decay paths in cascade emission processes suggesting the use of stacked quantum dot molecules as entangled photon-pair sources.
We investigate quantum photovoltaic effect in double quantum dots by applying nonequilibrium quantum master equation. The drastic suppression of the photovoltaic current is observed near the open circuit voltage, which leads to the large filling factor. We find that there always exists an optimal inter-dot tunneling that significantly enhances the photovoltaic current. The maximal output power will also be obtained around the optimal inter-dot tunneling. Moreover, the open circuit voltage approximately behaves as the product of the eigen-level gap and the Carnot efficiency. These results sugge…
The anomalous low-temperature behavior of the spontaneous magnetization of ordered arrays of In_{1-x}Mn_xAs quantum dots is discussed. It is shown that the experimental results can be well understood, within a mean field approximation, assuming collective response through rather strong spin tunneling processes between neighbouring dots.
We report both photon- and phonon-assisted tunneling transitions in a linear array of three quantum dots, which can only be understood by considering the full three-dimensionality of the charge stability diagram. Such tunneling transitions potentially contribute to leakage of qubits defined in this system. A detailed understanding of these transitions is important as they become more abundant and complex to analyze as quantum dot arrays are scaled up.
In situ tunable radio-frequency charge detection is used for the determination of the tunneling rates into and out of a graphene single quantum dot connected to only one lead. An analytical model for calculating these rates in the multi-level tunneling regime is presented and found to correspond very well to our experimental observations.
The transport properties of a metal core/semiconductor shell quantum dot molecule (QDM) embedded in a matrix connected to metallic electrodes are theoretically studied in the framework of Keldysh Green function technique. The effects of the electron plasmon interactions (EPIs) on the tunneling current spectra of QDM are examined. The energy levels of the QDs, intradot and interdot Coulomb interactions, electron interdot hopping strengths, and tunneling rates of QDs are renormalized by the EPIs. The differential conductance spectra show peaks arising from the plasmon assisted tunneling process,…
We report on the importance of resonant-tunneling processes on quantum transport through interacting quantum-dot spin valves. To include Coulomb interaction in the calculation of the tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR), we reformulate and generalize the recently-developed, numerically-exact method of iterative summation of path integrals (ISPI) to account for spin-dependent tunneling. The ISPI scheme allows us to investigate weak to intermediate Coulomb interaction in a wide range of gate and bias voltage and down to temperatures at which a perturbative treatment of tunneling severely fails.
We investigated the tunneling current peculiarities in the system of two coupled by means of the external field quantum dots (QDs) weakly connected to the electrodes in the presence of Coulomb correlations. It was found that tuning of the external field frequency induces fast multiple tunneling current switching and leads to the negative tunneling conductivity. Special role of multi-electrons states was demonstrated. Moreover we revealed conditions for bistable behavior of the tunneling current in the coupled QDs with Coulomb correlations.
Resonant tunneling through a quantum dot weakly coupled to quantum wires or quantum Hall edge states
讨论了弱耦合量子点与Tomonaga-Luttinger液体的共振隧穿。由于顺序隧穿的线性电导计算通过求解主方程的温度低于和高于平均水平间距的点。当表征Tomonaga-Luttinger液体的参数g小于1/2时，共振隧穿过程在零温度下是不相干的。在低温T下，库仑阻塞振荡中电导峰的高度和宽度分别与T^{（1/g）-2}和T成正比。隧道通过一个虚拟的中间状态（cotunneling）的贡献也包括在内。所得的电导公式可以应用于填充因子nu=1/（2 m +1）=g的分数量子霍尔液体边缘态之间的共振隧穿。
We study the influence of the phonon environment on the electron dynamics in a doped quantum dot molecule. A non-perturbative quantum kinetic theory based on correlation expansion is used in order to describe both diagonal and off-diagonal electron-phonon couplings representing real and virtual processes with relevant acoustic phonons. We show that the relaxation is dominated by phonon-assisted electron tunneling between constituent quantum dots and occurs on a picosecond time scale. The dependence of the time evolution of the quantum dot occupation probabilities on the energy mismatch between…
Motivated by the recent experiments of Amasha {\it et al.} [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 78}, 041306(R) (2008)], we investigate single electron tunneling into an empty quantum dot in presence of a magnetic field. We numerically calculate the tunneling rate from a laterally confined, few-channel external lead into the lowest orbital state of a spin-orbit coupled quantum dot. We find two mechanisms leading to a spin-dependent tunneling rate. The first originates from different electronic $g$-factors in the lead and in the dot, and favors the tunneling into the spin ground (excited) state when the $g$-facto…
Reliable detection of single electron tunneling in quantum dots (QD) is paramount to use this category of device for quantum information processing. Here, we report charge sensing in a degenerately phosphorus-doped silicon QD by means of a capacitively coupled single-electron tunneling device made of the same material. Besides accurate counting of tunneling events in the QD, we demonstrate that this architecture can be operated to reveal asymmetries in the transport characteristic of the QD. Indeed, the observation of gate voltage shifts in the detector's response as the QD bias is changed is …
We report electronic transport measurements through a silicon hybrid double quantum dot consisting of a donor and a quantum dot. Transport spectra show resonant tunneling peaks involving different valley states, which illustrate the valley splitting in a quantum dot on a Si/SiO2 interface. The detailed gate bias dependence of double dot transport allows a first direct observation of the valley splitting in the quantum dot, which is controllable between 160-240 ueV with an electric field dependence 1.2 +- 0.2 meV/(MV/m). A large valley splitting is an essential requirement to implement a physic…
Realistic relaxed configurations of triaxially strained graphene quantum dots are obtained from unbiased atomistic mechanical simulations. The local electronic structure and quantum transport characteristics of y-junctions based on such dots are studied, revealing that the quasi-uniform pseudomagnetic field induced by strain restricts transport to Landau level- and edge state-assisted resonant tunneling. Valley degeneracy is broken in the presence of an external field, allowing the selective filtering of the valley and chirality of the states assisting in the resonant tunneling. Asymmetric str…
We theoretically investigate the spectrum of a single electron double quantum dot, defined by top gates in a graphene with a substrate induced gap. We examine the effects of electric and magnetic fields on the spectrum of localized states, focusing on the tunability of the inter-dot coupling. We find that the substrate induced gap allows for electrostatic control, with some limitations that for a fixed inter-dot distance, the inter-dot coupling can not be made arbitrarily small due to the Klein tunneling. On the other hand, the proximity of the valence band in graphene allows for new regimes, …
Electron transport through a double quantum dot system is studied with taking into account electron-phonon interaction. The Keldysh nonequilibrium Green function formalism is used to compute the current and transmission coefficient of the system. The influence of the electron-phonon interaction, interdot tunneling, and temperature on the density of states and current is analyzed. Results show that although the electron-phonon interaction results in the appearance of side peaks in the conductance at low temperatures, they are disappeared in high temperatures.
We present a theory of tunneling spectroscopy of spin-selective Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in a lateral triple quantum dot molecule. The theory combines exact treatment of an isolated many-body system with the rate equation approach when the quantum dot molecule is weakly connected to the leads subject to arbitrary source-drain bias. The tunneling spectroscopy of the many-body complex is analyzed using the spectral functions of the system and applied to holes in a quantum dot molecule. Negative differential conductance is predicted and explained as a result of the redistribution of the spectra…
