Lifting the Franck-Condon blockade in driven quantum dots

Patrick Haughian, Stefan Walter, Andreas Nunnenkamp, and Thomas L. Schmidt
Phys. Rev. B 94, 205412 – Published 10 November 2016

Abstract

Electron-vibron coupling in quantum dots can lead to a strong suppression of the average current in the sequential tunneling regime. This effect is known as Franck-Condon blockade and can be traced back to an overlap integral between vibron states with different electron numbers which becomes exponentially small for large electron-vibron coupling strength. Here, we investigate the effect of a time-dependent drive on this phenomenon, in particular the effect of an oscillatory gate voltage acting on the electronic dot level. We employ two different approaches: perturbation theory based on nonequilibrium Keldysh Green's functions and a master equation in Born-Markov approximation. In both cases, we find that the drive can lift the blockade by exciting vibrons. As a consequence, the relative change in average current grows exponentially with the drive strength.

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  • Received 10 August 2016
  • Revised 7 October 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.94.205412

©2016 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Patrick Haughian1, Stefan Walter2, Andreas Nunnenkamp3, and Thomas L. Schmidt1,*

  • 1Physics and Materials Science Research Unit, University of Luxembourg, 1511 Luxembourg, Luxembourg
  • 2Institute for Theoretical Physics, University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Staudtstraße 7, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
  • 3Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB3 0HE, United Kingdom

  • *thomas.schmidt@uni.lu

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Issue

Vol. 94, Iss. 20 — 15 November 2016

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