Time-dependent relaxation of charge and energy in electronic nanosystems
Licentiate thesis, 2016

The study of the dynamics of strongly confined, interacting open quantum systems has attracted great interest over the past years, due to potential applications in nanoelectronics, metrology as well as quantum information. Most recent experimental and theoretical research in this field has shifted attention towards electronic heat currents, recognizing their potential for practical purposes as well as for tests of fundamental theories, and also aiming to control the inevitable heat dissipation of any dynamically operated electronic device. Using the generalized master equation framework and a novel second quantization approach in Liouville space, the research articles discussed in this thesis contribute to the theory of dynamics in electronic nanosystems in two related ways. On the one hand, we study the voltage-switch induced transient electronic charge and heat current out of a single-level quantum dot with strong local Coulomb interaction into a tunnel-coupled reservoir. The first paper discusses how to measure the decay rates governing the transient response of the quantum dot to the voltage switch; the second paper shows how the induced tunneling processes lead to energy dissipation, in time and in the presence of many-body charging effects. On the other hand, we identify a fundamental relation which represents a generalization of hermiticity for the effective Liouvillian governing the dissipative, nonunitary dynamics of a large class of tunnel-coupled, open fermionic quantum systems. Offering a more systematic way to characterize time-dependent decay, two initially surprising observations in the transient heat current out of the quantum dot studied in the papers turn out to be prime manifestations of this relation, and are shown to be of general nature: the existence of a decay rate that only depends on the coupling itself, and the signature of electron-electron attraction in the transient dynamics of systems with repulsive Coulomb interactions.

heat current

quantum dot

relaxation rate

rate detection

generalization of hermiticity

nonunitary dynamics

open quantum system

Coulomb charging energy

voltage switch

transient response

electronic nanosystem

C511, MC2, Chalmers University Of Technology
Opponent: Massimiliano Esposito

Author

Jens Schulenborg

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Applied Quantum Physics

Detection of the relaxation rates of an interacting quantum dot by a capacitively coupled sensor dot

Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics,; Vol. 89(2014)p. 195305-

Journal article

Fermion-parity duality and energy relaxation in interacting open systems

Physical Review B: covering condensed matter and materials physics,; Vol. 93(2016)p. 081411-

Journal article

Areas of Advance

Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (SO 2010-2017, EI 2018-)

Subject Categories

Physical Sciences

Condensed Matter Physics

Technical report MC2 - Department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience, Chalmers University of Technology: 331

C511, MC2, Chalmers University Of Technology

Opponent: Massimiliano Esposito

More information

Created

10/8/2017