Distributions of electron waiting times in quantum-coherent conductors

Abstract

The distribution of electron waiting times is useful to characterize quantum transport in mesoscopic structures. Here we consider a generic quantum- coherent conductor consisting of a mesoscopic scatterer in a two-terminal setup. We extend earlier results for single-channel conductors to setups with several (possibly spin degenerate) conduction channels and we discuss the effect of a finite electronic temperature. We present detailed investigations of the electron waiting times in a quantum point contact as well as in two mesoscopic interferometers with energy-dependent transmissions: a Fabry–Pérot interferometer and a Mach–Zehnder interferometer. We show that the waiting time distributions allow us to determine characteristic features of the scatterers, for instance, the number of resonant levels in the Fabry–Pérot interferometer that contribute to the electronic transport.