Unified description of charge transfer mechanisms and vibronic dynamics in nanoscale junctions

Abstract

We propose a general framework that unifies the point of view of counting statistics of transmitted (fermionic) charges as it is commonly used in the quantum transport community to the point of view of counting statics of phonons (bosons) as it is known from the field of quantum optics. As a particular example, we study on the same footing the counting statistics of electrons transfered through a molecular junction and the corresponding population dynamics of the associated molecular vibrational mode. In the tunnel limit, non-perturbative results in the electron-phonon interaction are derived that unify complementary approaches based on rate equations or on the use of non-equilibrium Green functions.