a Department of Physics, Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva, Israel
b Institute for Solid State Physics, University of Tokyo, 7-22-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106, Japan
Abstract:
We investigate equilibrium electron currents and magnetization in an ideal two-dimensional disc of radius R placed in a strong magnetic field H. The most striking results emerge when the conditions for the existence of edge and bulk states are met, namely . When the Fermi energy is locked on a Landau level, the current as a function of electron density is quantized in units of , where ωc is the cyclotron frequency. We argue that this effect survives against weak disorder. It is also shown that the persistent current has an approximately periodic dependence on 1/H.