Inelastic cotunneling in quantum dots and molecules with weakly broken degeneracies

Georg Begemann, Sonja Koller, Milena Grifoni, and Jens Paaske
Phys. Rev. B 82, 045316 – Published 23 July 2010

Abstract

We calculate the nonlinear cotunneling conductance through interacting quantum-dot systems in the deep Coulomb blockade regime using a rate equation approach based on the T-matrix formalism, which shows in the concerned regions very good agreement with a generalized master equation approach. Our focus is on inelastic cotunneling in systems with weakly broken degeneracies, such as complex quantum dots or molecules. We find for these systems a characteristic gate dependence of the nonequilibrium cotunneling conductance. While on one side of a Coulomb diamond the conductance decreases after the inelastic cotunneling threshold toward its saturation value, on the other side it increases monotonously even after the threshold. We show that this behavior originates from an asymmetric gate voltage dependence of the effective cotunneling amplitudes.

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  • Received 30 March 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.82.045316

©2010 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Georg Begemann1, Sonja Koller1, Milena Grifoni1, and Jens Paaske2

  • 1Theoretische Physik, Universität Regensburg, 93040 Regensburg, Germany
  • 2The Niels Bohr Institute and Nano-Science Center, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 5, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark

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Issue

Vol. 82, Iss. 4 — 15 July 2010

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