Fully Overheated Single-Electron Transistor

We consider the fully overheated single-electron transistor, where the heat balance is determined entirely by electron transfers. We find three distinct transport regimes corresponding to cotunneling, single-electron tunneling, and a competition between the two. We find an anomalous sensitivity to temperature fluctuations at the crossover between the two latter regimes that manifests in an exceptionally large Fano factor of current noise.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, includes Appendi

The localization effect for eigenfunctions of the mixed boundary value problem in a thin cylinder with distorted ends

A simple sufficient condition on curved end of a straight cylinder is found that provides a localization of the principal eigenfunction of the mixed boundary value for the Laplace operator with the Dirichlet conditions on the lateral side. Namely, the eigenfunction concentrates in the vicinity of the ends and decays exponentially in the interior. Similar effects are observed in the Dirichlet and Neumann problems, too.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figure

Water-waves modes trapped in a canal by a body with the rough surface

The problem about a body in a three dimensional infinite channel is considered in the framework of the theory of linear water-waves. The body has a rough surface characterized by a small parameter $\epsilon>0$ while the distance of the body to the water surface is also of order $\epsilon$. Under a certain symmetry assumption, the accumulation effect for trapped mode frequencies is established, namely, it is proved that, for any given $d>0$ and integer $N>0$, there exists $\epsilon(d,N)>0$ such that the problem has at least $N$ eigenvalues in the interval $(0,d)$ of the continuous spectrum in the case $\epsilon\in(0,\epsilon(d,N))$. The corresponding eigenfunctions decay exponentially at infinity, have finite energy, and imply trapped modes.Comment: 25 pages, 8 figure

Giant current fluctuations in an overheated single electron transistor

Interplay of cotunneling and single-electron tunneling in a thermally isolated single-electron transistor (SET) leads to peculiar overheating effects. In particular, there is an interesting crossover interval where the competition between cotunneling and single-electron tunneling changes to the dominance of the latter. In this interval, the current exhibits anomalous sensitivity to the effective electron temperature of the transistor island and its fluctuations. We present a detailed study of the current and temperature fluctuations at this interesting point. The methods implemented allow for a complete characterization of the distribution of the fluctuating quantities, well beyond the Gaussian approximation. We reveal and explore the parameter range where, for sufficiently small transistor islands, the current fluctuations become gigantic. In this regime, the optimal value of the current, its expectation value, and its standard deviation differ from each other by parametrically large factors. This situation is unique for transport in nanostructures and for electron transport in general. The origin of this spectacular effect is the exponential sensitivity of the current to the fluctuating effective temperature.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figure

Theory of temperature fluctuation statistics in superconductor-normal metal tunnel structures

We describe the statistics of temperature fluctuations in a SINIS structure, where a normal metal island (N) is coupled by tunnel junctions (I) to two superconducting leads (S). We specify conditions under which this structure exhibits manifestly non-Gaussian fluctuations of temperature. We consider both the Gaussian and non-Gaussian regimes of these fluctuations, and the current fluctuations that are caused by the fluctuating temperature. We also describe a measurement setup that could be used to observe the temperature fluctuations.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, final versio

Hanbury-Brown-Twiss correlations and noise in the charge transfer statistics through a multiterminal Kondo dot

We analyze the full counting statistics of charge transfer through a quantum dot in the Kondo regime, when coupled to an arbitrary number of terminals N. At the unitary Kondo fixed point and for N>2 we recover distinct anticorrelations of currents in concurring transport channels, which are related to the fermionic Hanbury Brown and Twiss (HBT) antibunching. This effect weakens as one moves away from the fixed point. Furthermore, we identify a special class of current correlations that are due entirely to the virtual polarization of the Kondo singlet. These can be used for extracting information on the parameters of the underlying Fermi-liquid model.Comment: 5 page

Full Current Statistics in Diffusive Normal-Superconductor Structures

We study the current statistics in normal diffusive conductors in contact with a superconductor. Using an extension of the Keldysh Green's function method we are able to find the full distribution of charge transfers for all temperatures and voltages. For the non-Gaussian regime, we show that the equilibrium current fluctuations are enhanced by the presence of the superconductor. We predict an enhancement of the nonequilibrium current noise for temperatures below and voltages of the order of the Thouless energy E_Th=D/L^2. Our calculation fully accounts for the proximity effect in the normal metal and agrees with experimental data. We demonstrate that the calculation of the full current statistics is in fact simpler than a concrete calculation of the noise.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures (included

Brownian refrigeration by hybrid tunnel junctions

Voltage fluctuations generated in a hot resistor can cause extraction of heat from a colder normal metal electrode of a hybrid tunnel junction between a normal metal and a superconductor. We extend the analysis presented in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 210604 (2007)] of this heat rectifying system, bearing resemblance to a Maxwell's demon. Explicit analytic calculations show that the entropy of the total system is always increasing. We then consider a single electron transistor configuration with two hybrid junctions in series, and show how the cooling is influenced by charging effects. We analyze also the cooling effect from nonequilibrium fluctuations instead of thermal noise, focusing on the shot noise generated in another tunnel junction. We conclude by discussing limitations for an experimental observation of the effect.Comment: 16 pages, 16 figure

"Electro-flux" effect in superconducting hybrid Aharonov-Bohm rings

We have extended the circuit theory of Andreev conductance [Phys.~Rev.~Lett. {\bf 73}, 1420 (1994)] to diffusive superconducting hybrid structures that contain an Aharonov-Bohm ring. The electrostatic potential distribution in the system is predicted to be flux-dependent with a period of the superconducting flux quantum $\Phi_{0}=h/2e$. When at least one tunnel barrier is present, the conductance of the system oscillates with the same period.Comment: 4 pages RevTex including three Postscript figures. Also available at http://www.tn.tudelft.nl/tn/thssci.htm