Interaction-induced adiabatic nonlinear transport

Phys Rev Lett. 2010 Jun 4;104(22):226803. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.226803. Epub 2010 Jun 1.

Abstract

We calculate the time-dependent nonlinear transport current through an interacting quantum dot in the single-electron tunneling (SET) regime. We show that an additional dc current is generated by the electron-electron interaction by adiabatic out-of-phase modulation of the gate and bias voltage. This current can arise only when two SET resonance conditions are simultaneously satisfied. We propose an adiabatic transport spectroscopy where lock-in measurement of a "time-averaged stability diagram" probes interactions, tunnel asymmetries, and changes in the ground state spin degeneracy.