Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 19, 2025

Resonance Fluorescence of an InGaAs Quantum Dot in a Planar Cavity Using Orthogonal Excitation and Detection
Published on: October 13, 2017
Coulomb staircase in an asymmetrically coupled quantum dot
G McArdle1, R Davies2, I V Lerner1
1School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
We investigate the Coulomb blockade in quantum dots asymmetrically coupled to the leads for an arbitrary voltage bias focusing on the regime where electrons do not thermalise during their dwell time in the dot. By solving the quantum kinetic equation, we show that the current-voltage characteristics are crucially dependent on the ratio of the Fermi energy to charging energy on the dot. In the standard regime when the Fermi energy is large, there is a Coulomb staircase which is practically the same as in the thermalised regime. In the opposite case of the large charging energy, we identify a new regime in which only one step is left in the staircase, and we anticipate experimental confirmation of this finding.
Related Concept Videos
Coulomb's Law and The Principle of Superposition
The Principle of Superposition answers the question. Yes, Coulomb's Law applies to each pair of charges, and the net force on each charge is the vector sum of...
Coulomb's Law
Newton's third law applies to the Coulomb force — the...
Fermi Level Dynamics
Electron affinity in semiconductors refers to the energy gap between the minimum of its conduction band and the vacuum level and it is a critical parameter in determining how easily a semiconductor can accept additional electrons.
The work...
Trends in Lattice Energy: Ion Size and Charge
Spin–Spin Coupling: Two-Bond Coupling (Geminal Coupling)
The central atom need not be NMR-active because its electrons are affected by the electron polarization of the spin-active atoms. However, spin information is transmitted less effectively than in one-bond coupling, and 2J values are usually weaker than 1J values. The energy of...
The Pauli Exclusion Principle

