Average Current Through a Single-electron Transistor Under Fluctuations of an Observer’s Frame of Reference

The average current through a single-electron transistor (SET) under fluctuations of an observer’s frame of reference (OFR) is reported. To date, the average current through a SET has been studied under the assumption that an OFR remains constant throughout the performance of measurements of the current; thus, it remains an unsolved problem as to what is measured of the current when the OFR is assumed to fluctuate. In this paper, a SET comprising a source, drain, and single channel is considered, where an OFR is assumed to be matched to the electrochemical potential energy of the drain of the SET. The average current through the SET for two types of OFR fluctuation is formulated: periodic-square-wave fluctuation and periodic-sawtooth-wave fluctuation, in time representations. Under these types of fluctuation, the average current exhibits a zero-bias Coulomb peak—the amplitude of which gradually increases with the amplitude of the fluctuation type divided by temperature. The amplitude of the zero-bias Coulomb peak is greater in the case of periodic-square-wave fluctuations. Therefore, the amplitude of the zero-bias Coulomb peak together with a varying of both the energy of the channel and the temperature has the potential to reveal the distribution of fluctuations of an OFR.