Electron-Hole Coherence and Charging Effects in Ultrasmall Metallic Grains
Abstract
We consider a model for electron tunneling between a pair of ultrasmall metallic grains. Under appropriate circumstances, nonequilibrium final state effects can strongly enhance tunneling and produce electron-hole coherence between the grains. The model displays a quantum phase transition between a Coulomb blockaded state to a coherent state exhibiting sub-Ohmic tunneling conductance. The critical state of the junction exhibits a temperature independent resistance of order h/e2. Finally we discuss the similarities between the quantum transition in our model and the metal-insulator transition in granular wires observed by Herzog et al.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- February 1998
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.1046
- arXiv:
- arXiv:cond-mat/9707014
- Bibcode:
- 1998PhRvL..80.1046D
- Keywords:
-
- Condensed Matter - Strongly Correlated Electrons;
- Condensed Matter - Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
- E-Print:
- 5 pages, 4 figures