Electron Dynamics

At low temperatures one of the most prominent current fluctuation phenomena is the so-called shot noise. It occurs at low transmission probabilities - e.g. transport through quantum dots or tunneling barriers - and has its origin in the discreteness of the electronic charge. Electron-electron interaction effects lead to an enhancement or suppression of the shot noise power allowing us to draw detailed conclusions about e.g. transmission probabilities, Coulomb blockade, or even many-body interaction effects like the Fermi edge singularity effect.

While the shot noise offers insight about correlations in electronic transport through semiconductor heterostrucure devices it is a demanding task to extract higher moments directly from these measurements. In contrast those moments are naturally accessible in the context of Full Counting Statistics (FCS). Using a quantum point contact as a non-invasive detector, we are able to directly count the number of electrons leaving or entering a quantum dot system, allowing us to extract cumulants of the distribution up to the 20th order.