Quantised charge pumping through multiple quantum dots

Original · EN

We study electron pumping through a system of barriers, whose heights are deformed adiabatically. We derive a simple formula for the pumped charge Q in terms of the total reflection and transmission amplitudes and phases. The pumped charge increases with the number of barriers (nb) and shows an interesting step-like behaviour, with the steps appearing at integer values of Q. The pumped charge also tends towards quantisation with the increase of the amplitude of the time-varying potential. The value of the quantised pumped charge is shown to be correlated to the discontinuity of the reflection phase.