Quantum Shuttle Phenomena in a Nanoelectromechanical Single-Electron Transistor
Abstract
An analytical analysis of quantum shuttle phenomena in a nanoelectromechanical single-electron transistor has been performed in the realistic case, when the electron tunneling length is much greater than the amplitude of the zero point oscillations of the central island. It is shown that when the dissipation is below a certain threshold value, the vibrational ground state of the central island is unstable. The steady state into which this instability develops is studied. It is found that if the electric field E between the leads is much greater than a characteristic value Eq, the quasiclassical shuttle picture is recovered, while if E≪Eq a new quantum regime of shuttle vibrations occurs. We show that in the latter regime small quantum fluctuations result in large (i.e., finite in the limit ℏ→0) shuttle vibrations.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- April 2004
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.166801
- arXiv:
- arXiv:cond-mat/0311105
- Bibcode:
- 2004PhRvL..92p6801F
- Keywords:
-
- 73.23.Hk;
- 85.35.Be;
- 85.85.+j;
- Coulomb blockade;
- single-electron tunneling;
- Quantum well devices;
- Micro- and nano-electromechanical systems and devices;
- Condensed Matter - Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics;
- Condensed Matter - Soft Condensed Matter
- E-Print:
- 5 pages, 1 figure