Correlations in the cotunneling regime of a quantum dot

Abstract

Off-resonance conductance through weakly coupled quantum dots ("valley conductance") is governed by cotunneling processes in which a large number of dot states participate. Virtually the same states participate in the transport at consecutive valleys, which leads to significant valley-valley conductance correlations. These correlations are calculated within the constant interaction model. Comparison with experiment shows that these correlations are less robust in reality. Among the possible reasons for this is the breakdown of the constant interaction model, accompanied by "scrambling" of the dot as the particle number is varied.