Biomedical subjects

Andrea Donarini

Publications and source records attributed to Andrea Donarini.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Dynamical symmetry breaking in transport through molecules.

We analyze the interplay between vibrational and electronic degrees of freedom in charge transport across a molecular single-electron transistor. We focus on the wide class of molecules which possess quasidegenerate vibrational eigenstates, while no degeneracy occurs for their anionic configuration. We show that the combined effect of a thermal environment and coupling to leads, involving tunneling events charging and discharging the molecule, leads to a dynamical symmetry breaking where quasidegenerate eigenstates acquire different occupations. This imbalance gives rise to a characteristic asymmetry of the current versus an applied gate voltage.

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PubMed2004

Shot noise of a quantum shuttle.

We formulate a theory for shot noise in quantum nanoelectromechanical systems. As a specific example, the theory is applied to a quantum shuttle, and the zero-frequency noise, measured by the Fano factor F, is computed. F reaches very low values (F approximately 10(-2)) in the shuttling regime even in the quantum limit, confirming that shuttling is universally a low noise phenomenon. In approaching the semiclassical limit, the Fano factor shows a giant enhancement (F approximately 10(2)) at the shuttling threshold, consistent with predictions based on phase-space representations of the density matrix.

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PubMed2003

Quantum shuttle in phase space.

We present a quantum theory of the shuttle instability in electronic transport through a nanostructure with a mechanical degree of freedom. A phase space formulation in terms of the Wigner function allows us to identify a crossover from the tunneling to the shuttling regime, thus extending the previously found classical results to the quantum domain. Further, a new dynamical regime is discovered, where the shuttling is driven exclusively by the quantum noise.

Journal Article↗