We present a theoretical analysis of the phonon-assisted relaxation in a system composed of two self-assembled vertically stacked quantum dots. We construct realistic model, which takes into account the geometry and strain distribution in the system. We calculate phonon-assisted relaxation rates between the two lowest states (in one- and two-electron cases). The relaxation rates and energy levels are studied as a function of external (axial) electric field and geometry of the structure (dot sizes). We show that the relaxation times can be as low as 1~ps but efficent relaxation occurs only for very finely tuned dots.
Time-resolved resonance fluorescence (RF) is used to analyse electron tunneling between a single self-assembled quantum dot (QD) and an electron reservoir. In equilibrium, the RF intensity reflects the average electron occupation of the QD and exhibits a gate voltage dependence that is given by the Fermi distribution in the reservoir. In the time-resolved signal, however, we find that the relaxation rate for electron tunneling is independent of the occupation in the charge reservoir. Using a master equation approach which includes both the electron tunneling and the optical excitation/recombin…
We investigate the noise properties of a GaAs-AlAs-GaAs tunneling structure with embedded self-assembled InAs quantum dots in the single-electron tunneling regime. We analyze the dependence of the relative noise amplitude of the shot noise on bias voltage. We observe a non-monotonic behaviour of the Fano-factor $α$ with an average value of $α\approx 0.8$ consistent with the asymmetry of the tunneling barriers. Reproducible fluctuations observed in $α$ can be attributed to the successive participation of more and more InAs quantum dots in the tunneling current.
We study theoretically phonon-assisted relaxation processes in a system consisting of one or two electrons confined in two vertically stacked self-assembled quantum dots. The calculation is based on a k.p approximation for single particle wave functions in a strained self-assembled structure. From these, two-particle states are calculated by including the Coulomb interaction and the transition rates between the lowest energy eigenstates are derived. We take into account phonon couplings via deformation potential and piezoelectric interaction and show that they both can play a dominant role in …
We study theoretically phonon-induced spin dynamics of two electrons confined in a self-assembled double quantum dot. We calculate the transition rates and time evolution of occupations for the spin-triplet and spin-singlet states. We characterize the relative importance of various relaxation channels as a function of the electric and magnetic fields. The simulations are based on a model combining the eight-band k.p method and configuration-interaction approach. We show that the electron g-factor mismatch between the Zeeman doublets localized on different dots opens a relatively fast triplet-s…
We study theoretically spin relaxation during phonon-assisted tunneling of a single electron in self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum-dot molecules formed by vertically stacked dots. We find that the spin-flip tunneling rate may be as high as 1% of the spin-conserving one. By studying the dependence of spin relaxation rate on external fields, we show that the process is active at a considerable rate even without the magnetic field, and scales with the latter differently than the relaxation in a Zeeman doublet. Utilizing a multiband $\boldsymbol{k}\cdot\boldsymbol{p}$ theory, we selectively investig…
We present a microscopic study of single-electron tunneling in nanomechanical double-barrier tunneling junctions formed using a vibrating scanning nanoprobe and a metallic nanoparticle connected to a metallic substrate through a molecular bridge. We analyze the motion of single electrons on and off the nanoparticle through the tunneling current, the displacement current and the charging-induced electrostatic force on the vibrating nanoprobe. We demonstrate the mechanical single-electron turnstile effect by applying the theory to a gold nanoparticle connected to the gold substrate through alkan…
Magnetotunneling spectroscopy was employed to probe the confinement in vertical Si/Ge double-barrier resonant tunneling diodes with regularly distributed Ge quantum dots. Their current-voltage characteristics reveal a step-like behavior in the vicinity of zero bias, indicating resonant tunneling of heavy-holes via three-dimensionally confined unoccupied hole states in Ge quantum dots. Assuming parabolic confinement we extract the strength of the confinement potential of quantum dots.
Based on the dielectric continuum model, we calculated the phonon assisted tunneling (PAT) current of general double barrier resonant tunneling structures (DBRTSs) including both symmetric and antisymmetric ones. The results indicate that the four higher frequency interface phonon modes (especially the one which peaks at either interface of the emitter barrier) dominate the PAT processes, which increase the valley current and decrease the PVR of the DBRTSs. We show that an asymmetric structure can lead to improved performance.
We have fabricated superconductor-quantum dot-superconductor (SC-QD-SC) junctions by using SC aluminum electrodes with narrow gaps laterally contacting a single self-assembled InAs QD. The fabricated junctions exhibited clear Coulomb staircases and Coulomb oscillations at 40 mK. Furthermore, clear suppression in conductance was observed for the source-drain voltage $|V_{\rm SD}| < 2Δ/e$, where $Δ$ is the SC energy gap of Al. The absence of Josephson current that flows through QDs is due to the strong Coulomb interaction and non-negligible thermal fluctuation in our measurement system.
We investigate the conductance and zero-frequency shot noise of interacting, multi-level quantum dots coupled to leads. We observe that co-tunneling assisted sequential tunneling (CAST) processes play a dominant role in the transition region from Coulomb blockade to sequential tunneling. We analyze for intermediate coupling strength the dependence of the conductance due to CAST processes on temperature, coupling constant, and gate voltage. Remarkably, the width of the CAST transport feature scales only with temperature, but not with the coupling constant. While the onset of inelastic co-tunnel…
Magnetization measurements of a truly axial symmetry Mn12-tBuAc molecular nanomagnet with a spin ground state of S = 10 show resonance tunneling. This compound has the same magnetic anisotropy as Mn12-Ac but the molecules are better isolated and the crystals have less disorder and a higher symmetry. Hysteresis loop measurements at several temperatures reveal a well-resolved step fine-structure which is due to level crossings of excited states. All step positions can be modeled by a simple spin Hamiltonian. The crossover between thermally assisted and pure quantum tunneling can be investigated …
We present time-resolved measurements of spin-flip photon-assisted tunneling and spin-flip relaxation in a doubly occupied double quantum dot. The photon-assisted excitation rate as a function of magnetic field indicates that spin-orbit coupling is the dominant mechanism behind the spin-flip under the present conditions. We are able to extract the resulting effective `spin-flip tunneling' energy, which is found to be three orders of magnitude smaller than the regular spin-conserving tunneling energy. We also measure the relaxation and dephasing times of a qubit formed out of two two-electron s…
We review experiments on single electron transport through single quantum dots in the presence of a microwave signal. In the case of a small dot with well-resolved discrete energy states, the applied high-frequency signal allows for inelastic tunnel events that involve the exchange of photons with the microwave field. These photon assisted tunneling (PAT) processes give rise to sideband resonances in addition to the main resonance. Photon absorption can also lead to tunneling via excited states instead of tunneling via the ground state of the quantum dot.
We present the first experimental observation of resonance-assisted tunneling, a wave phenomenon, where regular-to-chaotic tunneling is strongly enhanced by the presence of a classical nonlinear resonance chain. For this we use a microwave cavity made of oxygen free copper with the shape of a desymmetrized cosine billiard designed with a large nonlinear resonance chain in the regular region. It is opened in a region, where only chaotic dynamics takes place, such that the tunneling rate of a regular mode to the chaotic region increases the line width of the mode. Resonance-assisted tunneling is…
The transfer Hamiltonian tunneling current is derived in a time-dependent density matrix formulation and is used to examine photon-assisted tunneling. Bardeen's tunneling expression arises as the result of first order perturbation theory in a mean-field expansion of the density matrix. Photon-assisted tunneling from confined electromagnetic fields in the forbidden barrier region occurs due to time-varying polarization and wavefunction overlap in the gap, which leads to a non-zero tunneling current in asymmetric device structures, even in an unbiased state. The photon energy is seen to act as a…
We present a microscopic theory of single-electron tunneling through metallic nanoparticles connected to the electrodes through molecular bridges. It combines the theory of electron transport through molecular junctions with the description of the charging dynamics on the nanoparticles. We apply the theory to study single-electron tunneling through a gold nanoparticle connected to the gold electrodes through two representative benzene-based molecules. We calculate the background charge on the nanoparticle induced by the charge transfer between the nanoparticle and linker molecules, the capacit…
We report on electron transport through an artificial molecule formed by two tunnel coupled quantum dots, which are laterally confined in a two-dimensional electron system of an Al$_x$Ga$_{1-x}$As/GaAs heterostructure. Coherent molecular states in the coupled dots are probed by photon-assisted tunneling (PAT). Above 10 GHz, we observe clear PAT as a result of the resonance between the microwave photons and the molecular states. Below 8 GHz, a pronounced superposition of phonon- and photon-assisted tunneling is observed. Coherent superposition of molecular states persists under excitation of ac…
Josephson oscillations generated by a SQUID were used to measure photon assisted tunneling in a superconducting single electron tunneling (SET) transistor. The SQUID was fabricated only a few microns from the SET transistor. The close proximity of the generator to the SET transistor allowed for a continuous sweep of the excitation frequency from 10 GHz to 190 GHz. The amplitude of the Josephson oscillations were tuned by adjusting the flux through the SQUID loop while the frequency was independently adjusted by controlling the bias voltage across the SQUID. Current peaks which could be attribu…
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.
We measure electron tunneling in single-molecule transistors made from C_{140}, a molecule with a mass-spring-mass geometry chosen as a model system to study electron-vibration coupling. We observe vibration-assisted tunneling at an energy corresponding to the stretching mode of C_{140}. Molecular modeling provides explanations for why this mode couples more strongly to electron tunneling than the other internal modes of the molecule. We make comparisons between the observed tunneling rates and those expected from the Franck-Condon model.
We present a TCAD compatible multiscale model of phonon-assisted band-to-band tunneling (BTBT) in semiconductors, that incorporates the non-parabolic nature of complex bands within the bandgap of the material. This model is shown capture the measured current-voltage data in silicon, for current transport along the $[100]$, $[110]$ and $[111]$ directions. Our model will be useful to predict band-to-band tunneling phenomena to quantify on and off currents in Tunnel FETs and in small geometry MOSFETs and FINFETs.
We perform the investigations of the resonant tunneling via impurities embedded in the AlAs barrier of a single GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure. In the $I(V)$ characteristics measured at 30mK, the contribution of individual donors is resolved and the fingerprints of phonon assistance in the tunneling process are seen. The latter is confirmed by detailed analysis of the tunneling rates and the modeling of the resonant tunneling contribution to the current. Moreover, fluctuations of the local structure of the DOS (LDOS) and Fermi edge singularities are observed.
We develop a theory of electron tunneling accompanied by carrier-carrier scattering in graphene - insulator - graphene heterostructures. Due to the dynamic screening of Coulomb interaction, the scattering-aided tunneling is resonantly enhanced if the transferred energy and momentum correspond to those of surface plasmons. We reveal the possible experimental manifestations of such plasmon-assisted tunneling in current-voltage curves and plasmon emission spectra of graphene-based tunnel junctions. We find that inelastic current and plasmon emission rates have sharp peaks at voltages providing eq…
A theoretical and numerical investigations of the quantum tunneling of the domain walls in ferromagnets and weak ferromagnets was performed taking into account the interaction between walls and thermal excitations of a crystal. The numerical method for calculations of the probability of a thermally stimulated quantum depinning as the function of temperature at the wide temperature range has been evolved.
Phonon-assisted tunneling rates are evaluated for a well isolated double dot system defined in a GaAs semiconductor heterostructure of finite thickness. A separable model for the confining potential allows accurate determinations of doublet electron wavefunctions and energies. It is found that at small doublet energies the piezoelectric rates due to flexural modes give the dominant contribution. For small slab thicknesses the predicted rates are up to two orders of magnitude higher than for very thick slabs.
Band-to-band tunneling (BTBT) devices have recently gained a lot of interest due to their potential for reducing power dissipation in integrated circuits. We have performed extensive simulations for the BTBT operation of carbon nanotube metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (CNT-MOSFETs) using the non-equilibrium Green's functions formalism for both ballistic and dissipative quantum transport. In comparison with recently reported experimental data (Y. Lu et al, J. Am. Chem. Soc., v. 128, p. 3518-3519, 2006), we have obtained strong evidence that BTBT in CNT-MOSFETs is dominated by…
Injection of spins into semiconductors is essential for the integration of the spin functionality into conventional electronics. Insulating layers are often inserted between ferromagnetic metals and semiconductors for obtaining an efficient spin injection, and it is therefore crucial to distinguish between signatures of electrical spin injection and impurity-driven effects in the tunnel barrier. Here we demonstrate an impurity-assisted tunneling magnetoresistance effect in nonmagnetic-insulator-nonmagnetic and ferromagnetic-insulator-nonmagnetic tunnel barriers. In both cases, the effect refle…
We propose a novel approach to the problem of a transition from quantum to classical behavior in mesoscopic spin systems. This paper is intended to demonstrate that main cause of such transitions is quantum decoherence which appear as a result of a thermal interaction between spin system and its environment.
At finite temperature we study the quantum tunneling of magnetization for a small ferromagnetic particle with the biaxial symmetry placed in a magnetic field at an arbitrary angle. We present numerical WKB exponent below the crossover temperature in which the quantum tunneling is affected by the thermal activation, and the approximate form of the WKB exponent around the crossover region. The effect of quantum fluctuations on the thermal activation rate beyond the crossover regime are discussed.
The crossover between thermally assisted and pure quantum tunneling has been studied in single crystals of high spin (S=10) uniaxial molecular magnet Mn12 using micro-Hall-effect magnetometry. Magnetic hysteresis and relaxation experiments have been used to investigate the energy levels that determine the magnetization reversal as a function of magnetic field and temperature. These experiments demonstrate that the crossover occurs in a narrow (0.1 K) or broad (1 K) temperature interval depending on the magnitude of the field transverse to the anisotropy axis.
A physics-based compact model for silicon gate-all-around (GAA) nanowire tunneling FETs (NW-tFETs) with good accuracy has been developed by considering Phonon-Assisted Tunneling (PAT) and transition from Quantum Capacitance Limit (QCL) to Classical Limit (CL) during the device-size scaling. The impact of PAT results in the broadening of a single electron-energy level to an energy band with density-of-states (DOS) distribution of Lorentzian shape. As a consequence, the tunneling probability at the edge of tunneling window no longer changes abruptly from zero to having a finite value. By adjusti…
We analyze dephasing in single and double quantum dot systems. The decoherence is introduced by the Büttiker model with current conserving fictitious voltage leads connected to the dots. By using the non-equilibrium Green function method, we investigate the dephasing effect on the tunneling current. It is shown that a finite dephasing rate leads to observable effects. The result can be used to measure dephasing rates in quantum dots.
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.
Current-voltage characteristics of suspended single-wall carbon nanotube quantum dots show a series of steps equally spaced in voltage. The energy scale of this harmonic, low-energy excitation spectrum is consistent with that of the longitudinal low-k phonon mode (stretching mode) in the nanotube. Agreement is found with a Franck-Condon-based model in which the phonon-assisted tunneling process is modeled as a coupling of electronic levels to underdamped quantum harmonic oscillators. Comparison with this model indicates a rather strong electron-phonon coupling factor of order unity.
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…
Electronic transport in a carbon nanotube (CNT) metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) is simulated using the non-equilibrium Green's functions method with the account of electron-phonon scattering. For MOSFETs, ambipolar conduction is explained via phonon-assisted band-to-band (Landau-Zener) tunneling. In comparison to the ballistic case, we show that the phonon scattering shifts the onset of ambipolar conduction to more positive gate voltage (thereby increasing the off current). It is found that the subthreshold swing in ambipolar conduction can be made as steep as 40mV/d…
We study the effect of electron-phonon interaction on current and zero-frequency shot noise in resonant tunneling through a series triple-quantum-dot coupling to a local phonon mode by means of a nonperturbative mapping technique along with the Green function formulation. By fixing the energy difference between the first two quantum dots to be equal to phonon frequency and sweeping the level of the third quantum dot, we find a largely enhanced current spectrum due to phonon effect, and in particular we predict current peaks corresponding to phonon-absorption and -emission assisted resonant tun…
Pauli exclusion principle can lead to a supression of transport through double quantum dots, even if both quantum dots are connected by a resonant driving ac field. In this work, we study how this effect, known as spin blockade, can be removed by means of the influence of the driving field on the contacts to the leads.
We consider the photon-assisted tunneling (PAT) and the Landau-Zener-Stueckelberg (LZS) interference for double quantum dots induced electrostatically along a semiconducting carbon nanotube. An atomistic tight-binding approach and the time-dependent configuration interaction method are employed for description of the systems of a few confined electrons and holes. We reproduce the patterns of the LZS interference recently observed for the quantum double dots describing transport across hole-localized states. Moreover, we indicate that for charge configurations for which the ground-state is Paul…
We study the optical rectification in a metallic tunnel junction. We consider a planar junction in a Kretschmann configuration and measure the photon-assisted tunneling under infrared illumination at $λ= 1.5\, μ\mathrm{m}$. To address the microscopic mechanism at the origin of the optical rectification, we compare the photon assisted current and the current-voltage characteristics of the junction measured on a voltage range much greater than $V_0=\frac{hc}{eλ}=0.825 \, \mathrm{V}$. The experimental results do not agree with the Tucker theory based on the exchange of energy quanta between elect…
We report on capacitance-voltage spectroscopy of self-assembled InAs quantum dots under constant illumination. Besides the electronic and excitonic charging peaks in the spectrum reported earlier, we find additional resonances associated with nonequilibrium state tunneling unseen in C(V) measurements before. We derive a master-equation based model to assign the corresponding quantum state tunneling to the observed peaks. C(V) spectroscopy in a magnetic field is used to verify the model-assigned nonequilibrium peaks. The model is able to quantitatively address various experimental findings in C…
We analyze quantum charge pumping in an open ring with a dot embedded in one of its arms. We show that cyclic driving of the dot levels by a \textit{single} parameter leads to a pumped current when a static magnetic flux is simultaneously applied to the ring. Based on the computation of the Floquet-Green's functions, we show that for low driving frequencies $ω_0$, the interplay between the spatial interference through the ring plus photon-assisted tunneling gives an average direct current (dc) which is proportional to $ω_0^{2}$. The direction of the pumped current can be reversed by changing t…
We report a combined theoretical and experimental study of electrical transport in weakly-coupled doped superlattices. Our calculations exhibit negative differential conductivity at sufficiently high electric fields for all dopings. In low-doped samples the presence of impurity bands modifies the current-voltage characteristics substantially and we find two different current peaks whose relative height is changing with the electron temperature. These findings can explain the observation of different peaks in the current-voltage characteristics with and without external THz irradiation in low-d…
We develop a non-Markovian full counting statistics formalism taking into account both the sequential tunneling and cotunneling based on the exact particle number resolved time-convolutionless master equation and the Rayleigh-Schrödinger perturbation theory. Then, we study the influences of the quantum coherence and the cotunneling assisted sequential tunneling processes on the non-Markovian full counting statistics of electron tunneling through an open quantum system, which consists of a side-coupled double-quantum-dot molecule weakly coupled to two electron reservoirs. We demonstrate that in…
Using the slave boson Kotliar-Ruckenstein approach (SBMFA) for N level Anderson model, we compare fully symmetric SU(N) Kondo resonances occurring for spin and orbital conserving tunneling with many-body resonances for the dot with broken symmetry caused by spin, orbital or full spin-orbital mixing. As a result of interorbital or spin flip processes new interference paths emerge, which manifests in the occurrence of antibonding Dicke like and bonding Kondo like resonances. The analytical expressions for linear conductances and linear temperature thermopower coefficient for arbitrary N are foun…
A magnet with precessing magnetization pumps a spin current into adjacent leads. As a special case of this spin pumping, a precessing macrospin (magnetization) can assist electrons in tunneling. In small systems, however, the Coulomb blockade effect can block the transport of electrons. Here, we investigate the competition between macrospin-assisted tunneling and Coulomb blockade for the simplest system where both effects meet; namely, for a single tunnel junction between a normal metal and a metallic ferromagnet with precessing magnetization. By combining Fermi's golden rule with magnetizatio…
We report microwave-driven photon-assisted tunneling in a suspended carbon nanotube double quantum dot. From the resonant linewidth at a temperature of 13 mK, the charge dephasing time is determined to be 280 +- 30 ps. The linewidth is independent of driving frequency, but increases with increasing temperature. The moderate temperature dependence is inconsistent with expectations from electron-phonon coupling alone, but consistent with charge noise arising in the device. The extracted level of charge noise is comparable with that expected from previous measurements of a valley-spin qubit, wher…
We have studied the crossover between thermally assisted and pure quantum tunneling in single crystals of high spin (S=10) uniaxial single molecule magnet Mn12-acetate using micro-Hall effect magnetometry. Magnetic hysteresis experiments have been used toinvestigate the energy levels that determine the magnetization reversal as a function of magnetic field and temperature. These experiments demonstrate that the crossover occurs in a narrow (~0.1 K) or broad (~1 K) temperature interval depending on the magnitude and direction of the applied field. For low external fields applied parallel to the…
We show conduction bands of artificial gauge field assisted atom flow in triangle optical lattice. The conduction bands are result from periodicity boundary condition of artificial magnetic flux induced phases of atoms. The positions of conduction bands depend on geometry of the atom trajectory. We consider a cell of the triangle optical lattice which is a opened system connected to its environment of Fermion atom clouds. The chemical potentials of the atom clouds are the same and the atom flow is absolutely created by a clock laser induced spin-orbit coupling. Our results are important for th…
Graphene electrodes provide a suitable alternative to metal contacts in molecular conduction nanojunctions. Here, we propose to use graphene electrodes as a platform for effective photon assisted tunneling through molecular conduction nanojunctions. We predict dramatic increasing currents evaluated at side-band energies $\sim n\hbarω$ ($n$ is a whole number) related to the modification of graphene gapless spectrum under the action of external electromagnetic field of frequency $ω$. A side benifit of using doped graphene electrodes is the polarization control of photocurrent related to the proc…
We provide a detailed study of the interface Trap Assisted Tunneling (TAT) mechanism in tunnel field effect transistors to show how it contributes a major leakage current path before the Band To Band Tunneling (BTBT) is initiated. With a modified Shockley-Read-Hall formalism, we show that at room temperature, the phonon assisted TAT current always dominates and obscures the steep turn ON of the BTBT current for common densities of traps. Our results are applicable to top gate, double gate and gate all around structures where the traps are positioned between the source-channel tunneling region.…
We present a design for a tunneling-current-assisted scanning near-field microwave microscope. For stable operation at cryogenic temperatures, making a small and rigid microwave probe is important. Our coaxial resonator probe has a length of approxomately 30 mm and can fit inside the 2-inch bore of a superconducting magnet. The probe design includes an insulating joint, which separates DC and microwave signals without degrading the quality factor. By applying the SMM to the imaging of an electrically inhomogeneous superconductor, we obtain the spatial distribution of the microwave response wit…
Longitudinal or transverse magnetic fields applied on a crystal of Mn12-ac allows to observe independent tunnel transitions between m=-S+p and m=S-n-p (n=6-10, p=0-2 in longitudinal field and n=p=0 in transverse field). We observe a smooth transition (in longitudinal) from coherent ground-state to thermally activated tunneling. Furthermore two ground-state relaxation regimes showing a crossover between quantum spin relaxation far from equilibrium and near equilibrium, when the environment destroys multimolecule correlations. Finally, we stress that the complete Hamiltonian of Mn12 should conta…
We have investigated the noise properties of the tunneling current through vertically coupled self-assembled InAs quantum dots. We observe super-Poissonian shot noise at low temperatures. For increased temperature this effect is suppressed. The super-Poissonian noise is explained by capacitive coupling between different stacks of quantum dots.
We calculate the rates of phonon-assisted hyperfine spin flips during electron and hole tunneling between quantum dots in a self-assembled quantum dot molecule. We show that the hyperfine process dominates over the spin-orbit-induced spin relaxation in magnetic fields up to a few Tesla for electrons, while for holes this cross-over takes place at field magnitudes of a fraction of Tesla, upon the assumption of a large $d$-shell admixture to the valence band state, resulting in a strong transverse hyperfine coupling. The interplay of the two spin-flip mechanisms leads to a minimum of the spin-fl…
We study the quantum noise of electronic current in a double barrier system with a single resonant level. In the framework of the Landauer formalism we treat the double barrier as a quantum coherent scattering region that can exchange photons with a coupled electric field, e.g. a laser beam or a periodic ac-bias voltage. As a consequence of the manyfold parameters that are involved in this system, a complicated step-like structure arises in the non-symmetrized current-current auto correlation spectrum and a peak-like structure in the cross correlation spectrum with and without harmonic ac-driv…
We present a theoretical analysis aimed at understanding electrical conduction in molecular tunnel junctions. We focus on discussing the validity of coherent versus incoherent theoretical formulations for single-level tunneling to explain experimental results obtained under a wide range of experimental conditions, including measurements in individual molecules connecting the leads of electromigrated single-electron transistors and junctions of self-assembled monolayers (SAM) of molecules sandwiched between two macroscopic contacts. We show that the restriction of transport through a single lev…
