Coulomb Blockade and Insulator-to-Metal Quantum Phase Transition

Abstract

We analyze an interplay between Coulomb blockade and quantum fluctuations in a coherent conductor (with dimensionless conductance $g\gtrsim 1$) attached to an Ohmic shunt. We demonstrate that at T=0 the system can be either an insulator or a metal depending on whether its total resistance is larger or smaller than $h/e^2\approx 25.8$ k$\Omega$. In a metallic phase the Coulomb gap is fully suppressed by quantum fluctuations. We briefly discuss possible relation of this effect to recent experiments indicating the presence of a metal-insulator phase transition in 2d disordered systems.

4 revtex pages, no figures

References in corpus (1)

• Quantum Tunneling of the Order Parameter in Superconducting Nanowires

Cited by in corpus (5)

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• Electron transport and current fluctuations in short coherent conductors
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• Low temperature properties of a quantum particle coupled to dissipative environments