Low voltage conductance of small tunnel junctions

Abstract

A discrete charge transfer in a small tunnel junction where Coulomb interactions are important can excite electron-hole pairs near the Fermi level. We use a simple model to study the associated nonequilibrium properties and found two novel effects: (i) for junctions with electrodes of the same electronic properties, a leakage current exists within the Coulomb gap even when the environmental impedance is infinite; (ii) for junctions with electrodes of different electronic properties, the differential conductance diverges when a net interaction between conduction electrons is attractive, and it is strongly suppressed for a net repulsive interaction.