Vibrational absorption sidebands in the Coulomb blockade regime of single-molecule transistors

Matthias C. Lüffe, Jens Koch, Felix von Oppen

Published 2007-09-06, updated 2007-09-28Version 2

Current-driven vibrational non-equilibrium induces vibrational sidebands in single-molecule transistors which arise from tunneling processes accompanied by absorption of vibrational quanta. Unlike conventional sidebands, these absorption sidebands occur in a regime where the current is nominally Coulomb blockaded. Here, we develop a detailed and analytical theory of absorption sidebands, including current-voltage characteristics as well as shot noise. We discuss the relation of our predictions to recent experiments.