Physics Colloquium: Mesoscopic Thermodynamics

Abstract:

Transport through quantum system is usually investigated in thermodynamic equilibrium. As systems shrink in size fluctuations get ever more important and may even dominate the electronic properties of quantum devices. A charge detector capacitively coupled to a semiconductor quantum dot can be used to measure the passing of individual electrons through the systems, i.e. to measure the current on the level of individual charge carriers. The tunneling barriers as well as the dot occupation can be tuned on time scales faster than typical relaxation times in order to measure level degeneracies, energy dependent tunneling rates and decay times. For situations far from equilibrium the Jarzynski relation gives a clear prediction how out-of-equilibrium properties can be related to equilibrium properties, such as the free energy of a system. These relations can be probed experimentally using time-dependent electron transport through semiconductor quantum dots.

Event Organizer: Prof. Yoram Dagan