The dynamics of mesoscopic normal tunnel junctions

Abstract

We first review the dynamics of mesoscopic tunnel junctions within the semiclassical approach, outlining the method and its assumptions. We examine the case of a single junction driven by a constant current source, and its non-linear I–V characteristic. We then consider a single junction driven by a direct and an alternating current source, and show that it can be used as a phase-voltage converter. We also apply the approach to two junctions in series, showing that such a configuration has a non-linear I–V characteristic that can be used in electronic devices. We subsequently investigate the dynamics of such systems when the phase breaking time is large and the semiclassical approach does not apply. We first review the standard Zener tunneling calculations, and then show the effect of dissipation. We define and calculate the Zener time, a measure of the width of non-adiabatic transitions. We investigate the dynamics of systems whose energy spectrum consists of a set of periodic bands, for the cases where the phase breaking time is larger and smaller than the period of the band, but larger than the Zener time.