SciPost Thesis Link
| Title: | Dynamic Mesoscopic Conductors: Single Electron Sources, Full Counting Statistics, and Thermal Machines | |
| Author: | Patrick P. Potts | |
| As Contributor: | Patrick Potts | |
| Type: | Ph.D. | |
| Field: | Physics | |
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| Approach: | Theoretical | |
| URL: | https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:88977 | |
| Degree granting institution: | University of Geneva | |
| Supervisor(s): | Markus Büttiker, Eugene Sukhorukov, Christian Flindt | |
| Defense date: | Oct. 25, 2016 |
Abstract:
We theoretically investigate questions regarding the controlled emission and entanglement of individual electrons in mesoscopic circuits, the statistics of current fluctuations and electron waiting times for phase-coherent quantum transport, and thermal machines such as heat engines and refrigerators at the nano-scale. Chapter 2 focuses on dynamic single-electron sources, specifically on the generation of ac spin currents in topological insulators, Mach-Zehnder interferometry with periodic voltage pulses, and the on-demand entanglement of few-electron excitations. In Chapter 3, we present a novel theory for joint electron waiting times and we connect the occurrence of negative values in the full counting statistics to a peculiar interference effect. Chapter 4 discusses a heat engine based on the interference in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer as well as implementations for the arguably smallest thermal machines making use of a Josephson junction coupled to harmonic oscillators.