Electromechanics of charge shuttling in dissipative nanostructures

Abstract

We investigate the current-voltage (IV) characteristics of a model single-electron transistor where mechanical motion, subject to strong dissipation, of a small metallic grain is possible. The system is studied both by using Monte Carlo simulations and by using an analytical approach. We show that electromechanical coupling results in a highly nonlinear IV-curve. For voltages above the Coulomb blockade threshold, two distinct regimes of charge transfer occur: At low voltages the system behave as a static asymmetric double junction and tunneling is the dominating charge transfer mechanism. At higher voltages an abrupt transition to a new shuttle regime appears, where the grain performs an oscillatory motion back and forth between the leads. In this regime the current is mainly mediated by charges that are carried on the grain as it moves from one lead to the other.

8 pages, 10 figures, final version to be published in PRB

References in corpus (4)

• Influence of nano-mechanical properties on single electron tunneling: A vibrating Single-Electron Transistor
• A nanomechanical resonator shuttling single electrons at radio frequencies
• Coherent transfer of Cooper pairs by a movable grain
• Dynamics of a three terminal mechanically flexible tunneling contact

Cited by in corpus (19)

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• Classical dynamics of a nano-mechanical resonator coupled to a single-electron transistor
• Quantum Shuttle in Phase Space
• Single-electron Tunneling with Strong Mechanical Feedback
• Quantum Shuttle Phenomena in a Nanoelectromechanical Single-Electron Transistor
• Giving electrons a ride: nanomechanical electron shuttles
• Quantum Description of Shuttle Instability in Nanoelectromechanical Single Electron Transistor
• Stochastic thermodynamics of self-oscillations: the electron shuttle
• Low frequency current noise of the single-electron shuttle
• Quantum Noise in the Electromechanical Shuttle
• Autonomous implementation of thermodynamic cycles at the nanoscale
• Kondo Shuttling in Nanoelectromechanical Single-Electron Transistor
• Dissipative nonequilibrium synchronization of topological edge states via self-oscillation
• Impact of van der Waals forces on the classical shuttle instability
• Electron shuttle as an autonomous single-electron source
• Mechanical modulation of single-electron tunneling through molecular-assembled metallic nanoparticles
• Multiscale Modeling of a Nanoelectromechanical Shuttle
• Conductance of a SET with a retarded dielectric layer in the gate capacitor
• Quantum Teleportation in One-Dimensional Quantum Dots System