NBIA/QDev Seminar: Christian Flindt

Christian Flindt, University of Geneva
Electron Waiting Times in Mesoscopic Transport

Investigations of electrical noise and fluctuations in mesoscopic conductors have traditionally involved measurements of the shot noise and the full counting statistics of transferred charges. Recently, the distribution of waiting times between consecutive electrons has been proposed as a complementary characterization of stochastic quantum transport [1-3]. In this talk I provide an overview of our Geneva efforts to evaluate the waiting time distributions (WTDs) for several types of electronic conductors. For driven single-electron emitters, the WTD provides us with a simple and intuitive picture of the charge transport [1]. For fully phase-coherent conductors, a compact determinant formula predicts a crossover in the WTD for a quantum point contact from Wigner-Dyson statistics at full transmission to Poisson statistics close to pinch-off [2]. Finally, we have investigated the influence of dephasing on the WTD of electron transport through a double quantum dot [3]. I conclude by providing an outlook on future work and identify possible avenues for further developments.

[1] M. Albert, C. Flindt, and M. Büttiker, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 086805 (2011)
[2] M. Albert, G. Haack, C. Flindt, and M. Büttiker, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 186806 (2012)
[3] K. H. Thomas and C. Flindt, Phys. Rev. B 77, xxxxxx(R) (2013)