Statistical Distribution of Coulomb Blockade Peak Heights in Adiabatically Pumped Quantum Dots

Abstract

We study adiabatic quantum pumping in the resonant tunneling regime of a nearly-closed quantum dot, which is coupled to two leads via tunneling barriers. Using small cyclic variations of the tunneling rates of the barriers as the pumping mechanism, a current is obtained which depends sensitively on the system parameters and exhibits peaks due to Coulomb blockade. The distribution of the peak heights is found for temperatures $\Gam \ll k_{B} T \ll Δ$, with $\Gam$ the total decay width into the leads and $Δ$ the single-particle level spacing of the dot, and their average height is predicted to increase by a factor of $\frac{5\sqrt{2}}{18} π\approx 1.2$ upon breaking time-reversal symmetry. This is the pumping analog of the statistical theory of Coulomb blockade conductance peaks.