41 research outputs found
TUNNELING SPECTROSCOPY OF QUANTUM CHARGE FLUCTUATIONS IN THE COULOMB BLOCKADE
We present a theory of Coulomb blockade oscillations in tunneling through a
pair of quantum dots connected by a tunable tunneling junction. The positions
and amplitudes of peaks in the linear conductance are directly related,
respectively, to the ground state energy and to the dynamics of charge
fluctuations. We study analytically both strong and weak interdot tunneling. As
the tunneling decreases, the period of the peaks doubles, as observed
experimentally. In the strong tunneling limit, we predict a striking power law
temperature dependence of the peak amplitudes.Comment: 4 pages, revtex3.0, 1 figure uuencode
The Thermopower of Quantum Chaos
The thermovoltage of a chaotic quantum dot is measured using a current
heating technique. The fluctuations in the thermopower as a function of
magnetic field and dot shape display a non-Gaussian distribution, in agreement
with simulations using Random Matrix Theory. We observe no contributions from
weak localization or short trajectories in the thermopower.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, corrected: accidently omitted author in the
Authors list, here (not in the article
Higher-Order Results for the Relation between Channel Conductance and the Coulomb Blockade for Two Tunnel-Coupled Quantum Dots
We extend earlier results on the relation between the dimensionless tunneling
channel conductance and the fractional Coulomb blockade peak splitting
for two electrostatically equivalent dots connected by an arbitrary number
of tunneling channels with bandwidths much larger than the
two-dot differential charging energy . By calculating through second
order in in the limit of weak coupling (), we illuminate
the difference in behavior of the large- and
small- regimes and make more plausible extrapolation to the
strong-coupling () limit. For the special case of
and strong coupling, we eliminate an apparent ultraviolet
divergence and obtain the next leading term of an expansion in . We show
that the results we calculate are independent of such band structure details as
the fraction of occupied fermionic single-particle states in the weak-coupling
theory and the nature of the cut-off in the bosonized strong-coupling theory.
The results agree with calculations for metallic junctions in the
limit and improve the previous good
agreement with recent two-channel experiments.Comment: 27 pages, 1 RevTeX file with 4 embedded Postscript figures. Uses eps
ThermoElectric Transport Properties of a Chain of Quantum Dots with Self-Consistent Reservoirs
We introduce a model for charge and heat transport based on the
Landauer-Buttiker scattering approach. The system consists of a chain of
quantum dots, each of them being coupled to a particle reservoir. Additionally,
the left and right ends of the chain are coupled to two particle reservoirs.
All these reservoirs are independent and can be described by any of the
standard physical distributions: Maxwell-Boltzmann, Fermi-Dirac and
Bose-Einstein. In the linear response regime, and under some assumptions, we
first describe the general transport properties of the system. Then we impose
the self-consistency condition, i.e. we fix the boundary values (T_L,\mu_L) and
(T_R,mu_R), and adjust the parameters (T_i,mu_i), for i = 1,...,N, so that the
net average electric and heat currents into all the intermediate reservoirs
vanish. This condition leads to expressions for the temperature and chemical
potential profiles along the system, which turn out to be independent of the
distribution describing the reservoirs. We also determine the average electric
and heat currents flowing through the system and present some numerical
results, using random matrix theory, showing that these currents are typically
governed by Ohm and Fourier laws.Comment: Minor changes (45 pages
Effective charge-spin models for quantum dots
It is shown that at low densities, quantum dots with few electrons may be
mapped onto effective charge-spin models for the low-energy eigenstates. This
is justified by defining a lattice model based on a many-electron pocket-state
basis in which electrons are localised near their classical ground-state
positions. The equivalence to a single-band Hubbard model is then established
leading to a charge-spin () model which for most geometries reduces to a
spin (Heisenberg) model. The method is refined to include processes which
involve cyclic rotations of a ``ring'' of neighboring electrons. This is
achieved by introducing intermediate lattice points and the importance of ring
processes relative to pair-exchange processes is investigated using high-order
degenerate perturbation theory and the WKB approximation. The energy spectra
are computed from the effective models for specific cases and compared with
exact results and other approximation methods.Comment: RevTex, 24 pages, 7 figures submitted as compressed and PostScript
file
Oculomotor Guidance and Capture by Irrelevant Faces
Even though it is generally agreed that face stimuli constitute a special class of stimuli, which are treated preferentially by our visual system, it remains unclear whether faces can capture attention in a stimulus-driven manner. Moreover, there is a long-standing debate regarding the mechanism underlying the preferential bias of selecting faces. Some claim that faces constitute a set of special low-level features to which our visual system is tuned; others claim that the visual system is capable of extracting the meaning of faces very rapidly, driving attentional selection. Those debates continue because many studies contain methodological peculiarities and manipulations that prevent a definitive conclusion. Here, we present a new visual search task in which observers had to make a saccade to a uniquely colored circle while completely irrelevant objects were also present in the visual field. The results indicate that faces capture and guide the eyes more than other animated objects and that our visual system is not only tuned to the low-level features that make up a face but also to its meaning
Overt is no better than covert when rehearsing visuo-spatial information in working memory
In the present study, we examined whether eye movements facilitate retention of visuo-spatial information in working memory. In two experiments, participants memorised the sequence of the spatial locations of six digits across a retention interval. In some conditions, participants were free to move their eyes during the retention interval, but in others they either were required to remain fixated or were instructed to move their eyes exclusively to a selection of the memorised locations. Memory performance was no better when participants were free to move their eyes during the memory interval than when they fixated a single location. Furthermore, the results demonstrated a primacy effect in the eye movement behaviour that corresponded with the memory performance. We conclude that overt eye movements do not provide a benefit over covert attention for rehearsing visuo-spatial information in working memory
Perceptual judgment and saccadic behavior in a spatial distortion with briefly presented stimuli.
When observers are asked to localize the peripheral position of a small probe
with respect to the mid-position of a spatially extended comparison stimulus,
they tend to judge the probe as being more peripheral than the mid-position of
the comparison stimulus. This relative mislocalization seems to emerge from
differences in absolute localization, that is the comparison stimulus is
localized more towards the fovea than the probe. The present study compared
saccadic behaviour and relative localization judgements in three experiments and
determined the quantitative relationship between both measures. The results
showed corresponding effects in localization errors and saccadic behaviour.
Moreover, it was possible to estimate the amount of the relative mislocalization
by means of the saccadic amplitude
Changes in the Magnetization of a Double Quantum Dot
From accurate measurements of the energy states in a double quantum dot we
deduce the change in magnetization due to single electron tunneling. As a
function of magnetic field we observe crossings and anti-crossings in the
energy spectrum. The change in magnetization exhibits wiggles as a function of
magnetic field with maximum values of a few effective Bohr magnetons in GaAs.
These wiggles are a measure of the chaotic motion of the discrete energy states
versus magnetic field. Our results show good agreement with a numeric
calculation but deviate significantly from semiclassical estimates.Comment: 6 pages, plus 3 figure