Readout of relaxation rates by nonadiabatic pumping spectroscopy

Journal article, 2016

We put forward nonadiabatic charge pumping as a method for accessing the different charge relaxation rates as well as the relaxation rates of excited orbital states in double-quantum-dot setups, based on extremely size-limited quantum dots and dopant systems. The rates are obtained in a well-separated manner from plateaus, occurring when comparing the steady-state current for reversed driving cycles. This yields a reliable readout independent of any fitting parameters. Importantly, the nonadiabatic pumping spectroscopy essentially exploits the same driving scheme that the operation of these devices generally employs. We provide a detailed analysis of the working principle of the readout scheme as well as of possible errors, thereby demonstrating its broad applicability. The precise knowledge of relaxation rates is highly relevant for the implementation of time-dependently operated devices, such as electron pumps for metrology or qubits in quantum information.