We consider a superconducting microwave cavity capacitively coupled to both a quantum conductor and its electronic reservoirs. We analyze in detail how the measurements of the cavity microwave field, which are related to the electronic charge susceptibility, can be used to extract information on the transport properties of the quantum conductor. We show that the asymmetry of the capacitive couplings between the electronic reservoirs and the cavity plays a crucial role in relating optical measurements to transport properties. For asymmetric capacitive couplings, photonic measurements can be used to probe the finite low-frequency admittance of the quantum conductor, the real part of which is related to the differential conductance. In particular, when the quantum dot is far from resonance, the charge susceptibility is directly proportional to the admittance for a large range of frequencies and voltages. However, when the quantum conductor is near resonance, such a relation generally holds only at low frequency and for equal tunnel coupling or low voltage. Beyond this low-energy near-equilibrium regime, the charge susceptibility and thus the optical transmission offer new insights into the quantum conductors since the optical observables are not directly connected to transport quantities. For symmetric lead capacitive couplings, we show that the optical measurements can be used to reveal the Korringa-Shiba relation, connecting the reactive to the dissipative part of the susceptibility, at low frequency and low bias.

• Received 28 October 2015
• Revised 27 January 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.93.075425