Absence of compressible edge channel rings in quantum antidots

We report resonant tunneling experiments in a quantum antidot sample in the integer quantum Hall regime. In particular, we have measured the temperature T dependence of the peak value of a conductance peak on the i = 2 plateau, where there are two peaks per magnetic flux quantum straight phi(0). We observe a T-1 dependence as expected when tunneling through only one electron state is possible. This result is incompatible with tunneling through a compressible ring of several degenerate states. We also observe, for the first time, three conductance peaks per straight phi(0) on the i = 3 plateau.     

Andreev reflection in a quantum dot coupled to ferromagnetic and superconductor leads under magnetic fields

By employing the nonequilibrium Green's function, we investigate the spin-dependent linear Andreev reflection (AR) resonant tunneling through a quantum dot connected to a ferromagnetic lead and a superconducting lead, where the magnetization direction in the ferromagnetic lead can be tuned by one. We focus our attention on the effects of the magnetic fields on the AR conductance. One high conductance peak and one low conductance peak are developed in the linear AR conductance when a stronger magnetic field is considered. The interplay between the spin-flip scattering and the magnetic fields on the AR conductance are also studied.     

Conductance of a quantum ring with spin-orbit interaction in the presence of an impurity

The conductance of a quantum ring has been calculated on the basis of the tunneling Hamiltonian in the quasiballistic regime of the motion of electrons with allowance for the spin-orbit interaction. The effect of the scattering of electrons by a single short-range interacting impurity in the quantum ring on the tunneling electron current is analyzed. Two types of impurities, spinless and paramagnetic, are considered. The conductance symmetry is discussed for various electron-spin orientations with respect to change in the sign of the magnetic flux through the quantum ring.     

Spin-dependent transport through quantum dot with inelastic interactions

Using the Keldysh nonequilibrium Green function method, we theoretically investigate the electron transport properties of a quantum dot coupled to two ferromagnetic electrodes, with inelastic electron-phonon interaction and spin flip scattering present in the quantum dot. It is found that the electron-phonon interaction reduces the current, induces new satellite polaronic peaks in the differential conductance spectrum, and at the same time leads to oscillatory tunneling magnetoresistance effect. Spin flip scattering suppresses the zero-bias conductance peak and splits it into two, with different behaviors for parallel and anti-parallel magnetic configuration of the two electrodes. Consequently, a negative tunneling magnetoresistance effect may occur in the resonant tunneling region, with increasing spin flip scattering rate.     

Quantum oscillation of the tunneling conductance in fully epitaxial double barrier magnetic tunnel junctions

We investigated spin-dependent tunneling conductance properties in fully epitaxial double MgO barrier magnetic tunnel junctions with layered nanoscale Fe islands as a middle layer. Clear oscillations of the tunneling conductance were observed as a function of the bias voltage. The oscillation, which depends on the middle layer thickness and the magnetization configuration, is interpreted by the modulation of tunneling conductance due to the spin-polarized quantum well states created in the middle Fe layer. This first observation of the quantum size effect in the fully epitaxial double barrier magnetic tunnel junction indicates great potential for the development of the spin-dependent resonant tunneling effect in coherent tunneling regime.     

Tunneling spectroscopy of voltage tunable quantum wires

Resonant tunneling spectroscopy is used to investigate the tuning range for the one-dimensional subband spacing of side-gated quantum wires. We introduce a simplified selective depletion scheme for the implementation of a resonant tunneling device. From the analysis of the differential tunneling conductance obtained for a single-wire device we conclude that the energetic spacing for the one-dimensional subbands can be varied from effectively 0 to about 6 meV. Measurements in magnetic fields directed parallel and perpendicular to the tunnel current confirm the one-dimensional nature of the tunneling processes as well as the order of magnitude of the subband spacing by comparison of the tunneling characteristics with a model calculation that assumes a parabolic confinement.     

Quantum antidot as an electrometer:Observation of fractional charge

In experiments on resonant tunneling through a quantum antidot in the quantum Hall (QH) regime, we observe periodic conductance peaks both versus magnetic field and a global gate voltage, i.e., electric field. Each conductance peak can be attributed to tunneling through a quantized antidot-bound state. The fact that the variation of the uniform electric field produces conductance peaks implies that the deficiency of the electrical charge on the antidot is quantized in units of charge of quasiparticles of surrounding QH condensate. The period in magnetic field gives the effective area of the antidot state through which tunneling occurs, the period in electric field (obtained from the global gate voltage) then constitutes a direct measurement of the charge of the tunneling particles. We obtain electron charge C in the integer QH regime, and quasiparticle charge C for the QH state.     

Aharonov–Bohm oscillation of photoionization cross section in a quantum ring with a repulsive scattering center

The photoionization cross section (PCS) associated with intersubband transitions in quantum rings which include a repulsive scattering centre is investigated for the case with the presence of an external magnetic field. Calculations are carried out by using the matrix diagonalization method of the Hamiltonian matrix within the effective-mass approximation. Our results show that both the magnetic field, the ring radius and the impurity can affect the PCS of quantum rings. In addition, we found that the resonant peak of the PCS shows the Aharonov–Bohm oscillation with changing the magnetic field and the ring radius. Moreover, the width of the ring can influence the Aharonov–Bohm oscillation in peak while the resonant peak value of the PCS decreases as the ring width increases in the same ring geometry.     

Transport properties of a double quantum dot molecule in the presence of impurity effects

In this Letter, we studied the electronic transport through a parallel-coupled double quantum dot (DQD) molecule including impurity effects at zero temperature. The linear conductance can be calculated by using the Green's function method. An obvious Fano resonance arising from the impurity state in the quantum dot is observed for the symmetric dot-lead coupling structure in the absence of the magnetic flux through the quantum device. When the magnetic flux is presented, two groups of conductance peaks appear in the linear conductance spectra. Each group is decomposed into one Breit-Wigner and one Fano resonances. Tuning the system parameters, we can control effectively the shapes of these conductance peaks. The Aharonov-Bohm (AB) oscillation for the magnetic flux is also studied. The oscillation period of the linear conductance with π, 2π or 4π may be observed by tuning the interdot tunneling coupling or the dot-impurity coupling strengths.     

Evidence for spontaneous interlayer phase coherence in a bilayer quantum Hall exciton condensate

Recent experimental work on the quantized Hall state at total filling factor ν_T=1 in bilayer 2D electron systems has revealed a number of striking phenomena, including a giant and sharply resonant enhancement of the interlayer tunneling conductance at zero bias. The tunneling enhancement is a compelling indicator of spontaneous interlayer phase coherence among the electrons in the system. Such phase coherence is perhaps the single most important attribute of the excitonic Bose condensate which describes this remarkable quantum Hall state.     

Topological phase interference effects in resonant quantum tunneling of the Néel vector between nonequivalent magnetic wells in mesoscopic single-domain antiferromagnets

Resonant quantum tunneling of the Néel vector between nonequivalent magnetic wells is investigated theoretically for a nanometer-scale single-domain antiferromagnet with biaxial crystal symmetry in the presence of an external magnetic field applied along the easy anisotropy axis, based on the two-sublattice model. Both the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin exponent and the preexponential factors are evaluated in the instanton contribution to the tunneling rate for finite and zero magnetic fields by applying the instanton technique in the spin-coherent-state path-integral representation, respectively. The quantum interference or spin-parity effects induced by the topological phase term in the Euclidean action are discussed in the rate of quantum tunneling of the Néel vector. In the absence of an external applied magnetic field, the effect of destructive phase interference or topological quenching on resonant quantum tunneling of the Néel vector is evident for the half-integer excess spin antiferromagnetic nanoparticle. In the weak field limit, the tunneling rates are found to oscillate with the external applied magnetic field for both integer and half-integer excess spins. We discuss the experimental condition on the applied magnetic field which may allow one to observe the topological quenching effect for nanometer-scale single-domain antiferromagnets with half-integer excess spins. Tunneling behavior in resonant quantum tunneling of the magnetization vector between nonequivalent magnetic wells is also studied for a nanometer-scale single-domain ferromagnet by applying the similar technique, but in the large noncompensation limit. Received 4 June 1999     

Eccentricity effects on the quantum confinement in double quantum rings

This work presents a theoretical study of the energy spectrum of GaAs/AlGaAs concentric double quantum rings, under an applied magnetic field directed perpendicular to the ring plane. The Schrödinger equation for this system is solved in a realistic model consisting of rings with finite barrier potentials. Numerical results show that increasing the magnetic field intensity leads to oscillations in the ground state energy which, in contrast to the usual Aharonov-Bohm oscillations, do not have a well defined period, due to the coupling between inner and outer ring states. However, when one considers an elliptical geometry for the rings, the energy spectra of the inner and outer ring states are decoupled and the periodicity of the oscillations is recovered.     

Tunneling through a coherent "Quantum antidot molecule"

We report experiments on resonant tunneling through a quantum antidot in the fractional quantum Hall regime. The envelope of the conductance peaks indicates tunneling via two resonant states, one of them bound on the lithographic antidot, the other on a hill of the disorder potential. Moreover, our analysis indicates that the coherent tunneling rate between the two states is an order of magnitude higher than the phase breaking rate, thus giving evidence for a coherently coupled "antidot molecule."     

Coherent resonant transport through a mesoscopic system with quantum ac microwave field

The time-dependent transport through an ultrasmall quantum dot coupling to two electron reservoirs is investigated. The quantum dot is perturbed by a quantum microwave field (QMF) through gate. The tunneling current formulae are obtained by taking expectation values over coherent state (CS), and SU(1,1) CS. We derive the transport formulae at low temperature by employing the nonequilibrium Green function technique. The currents exhibit coherent behaviors which are strongly associated with the applied QMF. The time-dependent currents appear compound effects of resonant tunneling and time-oscillating evolution. The time-averaged current and differential conductance are calculated, which manifest photon-assisted behaviors. Numerical calculations reveal the similar properties as those in classical microwave field (CMF) perturbed system for the situations concerning CS and squeezed vacuum SU(1,1) CS. But for other squeezed SU(1,1) CS, the tunneling behavior is quite different from the system perturbed by a single CMF through gate. Due to the quantum signal perturbation, the measurable quantities fluctuate fiercely. Received 28 May 1998     

Intradot spin-flip Andreev reflection tunneling through a ferromagnet-quantum dot-superconductor system with ac field

We investigate Andreev reflection (AR) tunneling through a ferromagnet-quantum dot-superconductor (F-QD-S) system in the presence of an external ac field. The intradot spin-flip scattering in the QD is involved. Using the nonequilibrium Green function and BCS quasiparticle spectrum for superconductor, time-averaged AR conductance is formulated. The competition between the intradot spin-flip scattering and photon-assisted tunneling dominates the resonant behaviors of the time-averaged AR conductance. For weak intradot spin-flip scattering strengths, the AR conductance shows a series of equal interval resonant levels. However, the single-peak at main resonant level develops into a well-resolved double-peak resonance at a strong intradot spin-flip scattering strength. Remarkable, multiple-photon-assisted tunneling that generates photonic sideband peaks with a variable interval has been found. In addition, the AR conductance-bias voltage characteristic shows a transition between the single-peak to double-peak resonance as the ratio of the two tunneling strengths varies.     

Conductance studies in a double-bend quantum structure

Transport phenomena in a double-bend quantum structure fabricated in the two-dimensional electron gas of a modulation doped GaAs/AlGaAs structure, are studied experimentally. The structure consists of an electrostatically defined quantum dot with two one-dimensional wires connected on opposite corners of the dot. The current–voltage characteristics of such devices exhibit quantized conductance breakdown (non-linear behavior), conductance variation with confinement, and non-linear and asymmetric behavior at high bias condition. Low temperature conductance of this structure shows evidence of resonant tunneling, while the peaks of the conductance vary with temperature.     

Characteristics of transmission of electrons in a quantum wire tangentially attached to a superconductor ring threaded by magnetic flux

We present numerical investigations of the transmission properties of electrons in a normal quantum wire tangentially attached to a superconductor ring threaded by magnetic flux. A point scatterer with a δ -function potential is placed at node to model scattering effect. We find that the transmission characteristics of electrons in this structure strongly depend on the normal or superconducting state of the ring. The transmission probability as a function of the energy of incident electrons, in the case of a superconductor ring threaded by one quantum magnetic flux, emerges one deep dip, imposed upon the first broad bump in spectrum. This intrinsic conductance dip originates from the superconductor state of the ring. When increasing the magnetic flux from one quantum magnetic flux to two, the spectrum shifts toward higher energy region in the whole. This conductance dip accordingly shifts and appears in the second bump. In the presence of a point-scatterer at the node, the spectrum is substantially modified. Based on the condition of the formation of the standing wave functions in the ring and the broken of the time-reserve symmetry of Schr?dinger equation after switching magnetic flux, the characteristics of transmission of electrons in this structure can be well understood. Received 6 November 2001     

Negative differential conductance in InAs wire based double quantum dot induced by a charged AFM tip

We investigate the conductance of an InAs nanowire in the nonlinear regime in the case of low electron density where the wire is split into quantum dots connected in series. The negative differential conductance in the wire is initiated by means of a charged atomic force microscope tip adjusting the transparency of the tunneling barrier between two adjoining quantum dots. We confirm that the negative differential conductance arises due to the resonant tunneling between these two adjoining quantum dots. The influence of the transparency of the blocking barriers and the relative position of energy states in the adjoining dots on a decrease of the negative differential conductance is investigated in detail.     

Magnetoexciton in semiconductor concentric double rings

We investigate theoretically the magnetoexciton states in semiconductor concentric quantum double rings using the multi-band effective mass theory. We find that a perpendicular magnetic field can lead to oscillations in the exciton energy which appear as kinks in the magneto-photoluminescence (PL) spectra as the magnetic field increases. The spatial distribution of the exciton over the rings depends sensitively on the thicknesses of the inner and outer rings. The tunneling coupling between the inner and outer rings and the heavy-hole and light-hole mixing results in different anticrossing behaviors. Exciton can be converted into a spatially separated type-II exciton by tuning the thickness, the inner and/or outer ring radius and the magnetic field. We show that this type I–type II transition is reflected in the oscillator strength of the PL spectrum which will be the experimental signature that will provide us with information about the spatial distribution of the exciton.     

Magnetoexciton in semiconductor concentric double rings

We investigate theoretically the magnetoexciton states in semiconductor concentric quantum double rings using the multi-band effective mass theory. We find that a perpendicular magnetic field can lead to oscillations in the exciton energy which appear as kinks in the magneto-photoluminescence (PL) spectra as the magnetic field increases. The spatial distribution of the exciton over the rings depends sensitively on the thicknesses of the inner and outer rings. The tunneling coupling between the inner and outer rings and the heavy-hole and light-hole mixing results in different anticrossing behaviors. Exciton can be converted into a spatially separated type-II exciton by tuning the thickness, the inner and/or outer ring radius and the magnetic field. We show that this type I–type II transition is reflected in the oscillator strength of the PL spectrum which will be the experimental signature that will provide us with information about the spatial distribution of the exciton.