Resonance breakdown of a Coulomb blockade due to the mechanical vibrations of a quantum dot

The effect of forced mechanical vibrations of a suspended single-electron transistor on Coulomb-blockade limited electron tunneling through a quantum dot has been studied. The mechanical vibrations of the quantum dot have been shown to result in the Coulomb blockade breakdown, which is manifested by narrow resonance peaks of the transistor conductance as a function of the excitation frequency at the frequencies corresponding to the eigenmodes of the mechanical vibrations. The mechanism of the observed effect presumably associated with the oscillations of the mutual electrical capacitances between the quantum dot and the surrounding electrodes is discussed.