Electron waiting times in mesoscopic transport

Abstract

Investigations of electrical noise and fluctuations in mesoscopic conductors have traditionally involved measurements of the shot noise and the full counting statistics of transferred charges. Recently, the distribution of waiting times between consecutive electrons has been suggested as another useful and complementary characterization of stochastic quantum transport. In this contribution, we provide a brief overview of our recent Geneva efforts to describe and evaluate the electronic waiting time distributions for several types of quantum conductors. For driven single-electron emitters described by quasi-classical master equations, the electronic waiting time distribution provides us with a simple and intuitive picture of the charge transport. For fully phase-coherent conductors, we have formulated a compact determinant formula based on scattering theory that for instance predicts a crossover in the waiting time distribution for a quantum point contact from Wigner-Dyson statistics at full transmission to Poisson statistics close to pinch-off. Finally, to describe the influence of dephasing as well as non-Markovian dynamics, we have employed an open-quantum-systems approach and evaluated the waiting times between electrons propagating through a dissipative double quantum dot. We conclude by providing an outlook on future work and identify possible avenues for further developments.