Coulomb blockade in a quantum wire with long-range Coulomb interactions

Abstract

We study the transport through two impurities or ``barriers'' in a one-dimensional quantum wire, taking into account the long-range $\frac1r$ Coulomb interactions. We compute the temperature-dependent conductance $G(T)$ of this system. Long-range forces lead to a dramatic increase of weak barrier potentials with decreasing temperature, even in the ``resonant'' case. The system thus always reaches a ``strong barrier'' regime in which only charge is pinned, contrary to the standard LL case. $G(T)$ vanishes faster than any power as $T$ goes to zero. In particular, resonant tunneling is suppressed at zero temperature.