Spin Blockades in the Transport through Quantum Dots

Abstract

The low-temperature electronic transport properties of sub-micrometer sized quantum dots, coupled to leads via tunnel barriers [1], are among the most promising areas of present-day research in mesoscopic physics [2, 3]. In particular, the interest of numerous research groups is focused on spin effects in quantum dots. This effort is motivated by the recent development of a novel kind of electronics which makes use of the spin degree of freedom of the electrons (spintronics), and proposals of using spins in quantum dots for quantum computing [4, 5].