Berlin 2012 – scientific programme
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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik
O 66: Nanostructures at surfaces III
O 66.3: Talk
Thursday, March 29, 2012, 11:00–11:15, MA 042
Characterization of nano-scale electrical contacts using dynamical Coulomb blockade — Christophe Brun1, •Konrad H. Müller2, I-Po Hong1, François Patthey1, Christian Flindt2, and Wolf-Dieter Schneider1 — 1Institut de Physique de la Matière Condensée, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland — 2Département de Physique Théorique, Université de Genève, CH-1211 Genève, Switzerland
The theory of dynamical Coulomb blockade (DCB) has in the past been successful in describing transport measurements in carefully engineered tunnel junctions by explicitly taking into account the electrical circuits in which they are embedded [1,2]. Here we use the theory of DCB to explain recent scanning tunneling spectroscopy measurements on flat metallic nano-scale islands electrically coupled to their supporting substrates [3]. The observed suppression of the differential tunnel conductance at small bias voltages is due to DCB and can be understood by considering the island–substrate contact as an Ohmic resistor in parallel with a plate capacitor. Our theoretical calculations are in good agreement with the measurements and allow us to investigate the systematic dependence of the resistances and capacitances on the island–substrate contact area.
[1] M. H. Devoret et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 64, 1824 (1990).
[2] G.-L. Ingold and Yu. V. Nazarov, in Single Charge Tunneling (Plenum, New York, 1992).
[3] C. Brun, K. H. Müller, I-P. Hong, F. Patthey, C. Flindt, and W.-D. Schneider, in preparation (2011).