Effect of Quantum Confinement on Electron Tunneling through a Quantum Dot

Abstract

Employing the Anderson impurity model, we study tunneling properties through an ideal quantum dot near the conductance minima. Considering the Coulomb blockade and the quantum confinement on an equal footing, we have obtained current contributions from various types of tunneling processes; inelastic cotunneling, elastic cotunneling, and resonant tunneling of thermally activated electrons. We have found that the inelastic cotunneling is suppressed in the quantum confinement limit, and thus the conductance near its minima is determined by the elastic cotunneling at low temperature ($k_BT \ll \Gamma$, $\Gamma$: dot-reservoir coupling constant), or by the resonant tunneling of single electrons at high temperature ($k_BT \gg \Gamma$).