Mesoscopic Coulomb Drag

Abstract

This thesis describes the merging of the two fields of Coulomb drag and mesoscopic physics. The thesis presents a theory for Coulomb drag between two mesoscopic systems based on linear-response theory. The formalism expresses the drag in terms of either scattering matrices and wave functions or Green functions, and its range of validity covers both ballistic and disordered phase-coherent systems. The consequences are worked out either by analytic means, such as the random matrix theory, or by numerical simulations. The formalism is applied to i) drag between mesoscopic quantum wires and ii) drag between mesoscopic quantum dots. In these systems it is found that for even weak disorder the mesoscopic sample-to-sample fluctuations of the drag conductance can be of the order of - or even exceed - the mean value. Depending on the particular disorder configuration this is giving rise to a possible sign change of the induced current.