Adiabatic charge pumping through quantum dots in the Coulomb blockade regime

Abstract

We investigate the influence of the Coulomb interaction on the adiabatic pumping current through a quantum dot. Using nonequilibrium Green's functions techniques, we derive a general expression for the current based on the instantaneous Green's function of the dot. We apply this formula to study the dependence of the charge pumped per cycle on the time-dependent pumping potentials. Motivated by recent experiments, the possibility of charge quantization in the presence of a finite Coulomb repulsion energy is investigated.