We investigate the effect of a scanning gate tip in the nonlinear quantum transport properties of nanostructures. Generally, we predict that the symmetry of the current-voltage characteristic in reflection-symmetric samples is broken by a tip-induced rectifying conductance correction. Moreover, in the case of a quantum point contact (QPC), the tip-induced rectification term becomes dominant as compared to the change of the linear conductance at large tip-QPC distances. Calculations for a weak tip probing a QPC modeled by an abrupt constriction show that these effects are experimentally observable.
@article{arxiv.1312.1194,
title = {Scanning-gate-induced effects in nonlinear transport through nanostructures},
author = {Cosimo Gorini and Dietmar Weinmann and Rodolfo A. Jalabert},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1312.1194},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
6 pages, 4 figures, revised and extended final version