Total current blockade in an ultracold dipolar quantum wire

Phys Rev Lett. 2013 Feb 22;110(8):085303. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.085303. Epub 2013 Feb 21.

Abstract

Cold-atom systems offer a great potential for the future design of new mesoscopic quantum systems with properties that are fundamentally different from semiconductor nanostructures. Here, we investigate the quantum-gas analogue of a quantum wire and find a new scenario for the quantum transport: Attractive interactions may lead to a complete suppression of current in the low-bias range, a total current blockade. We demonstrate this effect for the example of ultracold quantum gases with dipolar interactions.