Interference effects in the counting statistics of electron transfers through a double quantum dot

Abstract

We investigate effects of quantum interferences and Coulomb interaction on the counting statistics of electrons crossing a double quantum dot in a parallel geometry by using a generating function technique based on a quantum master equation approach. The skewness and the average residence time of electrons in the dots are shown to be the quantities most sensitive to interferences and Coulomb coupling. The joint probabilities of consecutive electron transfer processes show characteristic temporal oscillations due to interference. The steady-state fluctuation theorem that predicts a universal relation between the number of forward and backward transfer events is shown to hold even in the presence of the Coulomb coupling and interference. © 2008 The American Physical Society.