Distributions of electron waiting times in quantum-coherent conductors

Abstract

The distribution of electron waiting times is useful to characterize quantum transport in mesoscopic structures. Here we consider a generic quantum-coherent conductor consisting of a mesoscopic scatterer in a two-terminal setup. We extend earlier results for single-channel conductors to setups with several (possibly spin degenerate) conduction channels and we discuss the effect of a finite electronic temperature. We present detailed investigations of the electron waiting times in a quantum point contact as well as in two mesoscopic interferometers with energy-dependent transmissions: a Fabry-Pérot interferometer and a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. We show that the waiting time distributions allow us to determine characteristic features of the scatterers, for instance, the number of resonant levels in the Fabry-Pérot interferometer that contribute to the electronic transport.