2025/06/25 by Sofia Sevitz, Federico Cerisola, Sevitz, Sofia +3 · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Photonic and Optical Devices #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #Surface and Thin Film Phenomena
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2506.20593
openalex publication_date 2025/06/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/09 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Coupling the vibrations of an oscillator to electronic transport is a key building block for nanoelectromechanical systems. They describe many nanoscale electrical components such as molecular junctions. Inspired by recent experimental developments, we derive a quantum master equation that describes nanoelectromechanical systems in a generally overlooked situation: when the electronic transport is slower than the natural frequency of the oscillator. Here, a semi-classical model is no longer valid and we develop the missing fully quantum approach. Moreover, we go beyond the wide-band limit and study the consequence of maintaining energy dependent tunneling rates, which are required to describe effects found in real devices. To benchmark our results, we compare with numerically exact results obtained with the hierarchical equations of motion method, and find overall good agreements in the experimentally accessible steady state regime. Furthermore, we derive from the microscopic model a ready to use particle current expression that replicates features already observed experimentally.