Capacitively coupled nano conductors: Ratchet currents and exchange fluctuation relations

Abstract: We investigate electron transport in two quantum circuits with mutual Coulomb interaction. The first circuit is a double quantum dot connected to two electron reservoirs, while the second one is a quantum point contact in the weak tunneling limit. The coupling is such that an electron in the first circuit enhances the barrier of the point contact and, thus, reduces its conductivity. While such setups are frequently used as charge monitors, we focus on two different aspects. First, we derive transport coefficients which have recently been employed for testing generalized equilibrium conditions known as exchange fluctuation relations. These formally exact relations allows us to test the consistency of our master equation approach. Second, a biased point contact entails noise on the DQD and induces non-equilibrium phenomena such as a ratchet current.