Current blockade in classical single-electron nanomechanical resonator
Résumé
We consider a single-electron transistor where the central metallic island can oscillate. It has been shown that for a weak coupling of the elastic and electric degrees of freedom, the position of the island fluctuates with a small variation of the current through the device. In this paper, we consider the strong coupling limit. We show that the system undergoes a static mechanical instability that is responsible for the opening of a gap in the current-voltage characteristics even at the degeneracy point. We provide an analytical description of the transition point, taking into account the nonequilibrium mechanical state. We also discuss how the mechanical nature of the suppression of the current can be probed experimentally by a slow modulation of the gate voltage.