Nonlinear conductance fluctuations in a mesoscopic ring

We study the conductance of a single particle on a ring subject to an arbitrary dc electric field, which is generated by a linearly in time increasing magnetic flux. The full quantum mechanical time development is calculated numerically by splitting the dynamics into independent consecutive Zener tunneling transitions and free motion on the ring. The Zener transitions occur near the avoided crossings of the bandstructure which arises from the adiabatic eigenstates as a function of flux in the presence of a static scattering potential. To account for the necessary dissipation the particle is coupled to an appropriate oscillator bath which is adjusted to give a strictly linear current-voltage characteristic for arbitrary voltage and temperature in the absence of scattering. Taking a single δ-function scatterer we find that the dissipative coupling eliminates the localization in energy space found previously and leads to a well defined resistive steady state. The scattering introduces reproducible fluctuations around the average Ohmic behavior which are caused by coherent backscattering. Their magnitude depends on the strength of the scattering potential and decays slowly for large voltages. The associated correlation energy is determined by the uncertainty of the eigenstates due to the dissipative bath coupling. Thermal averaging leads to a decrease of the conductance fluctuations proportional to T^?1.     

Spin and link overlaps in three-dimensional spin glasses

Excitations of three-dimensional spin glasses are computed numerically. We find that one can flip a finite fraction of an LxLxL lattice with an O(1) energy cost, confirming the mean-field picture of a nontrivial spin overlap distribution P(q). These low energy excitations are not domain-wall-like, rather they are topologically nontrivial and they reach out to the boundaries of the lattice. Their surface to volume ratios decrease as L increases and may asymptotically go to zero. If so, link and window overlaps between the ground state and these excited states become "trivial."     

Free energy fluctuations in Ising spin glasses

The sample-to-sample fluctuations of the free energy in finite-dimensional Ising spin glasses are calculated, using the replica method, from higher order terms in the replica number n. It is shown that the Parisi symmetry breaking scheme does not give the correct answers for these higher order terms. A modified symmetry breaking scheme with the same stability is shown to resolve the problem.     

Coexistence of anomalous field effect and mesoscopic conductance fluctuations in granular aluminium

We perform electrical field effect measurements at 4 K on insulating granular aluminium thin films. When the samples size is reduced below ≃100 μm, reproducible and stable conductance fluctuations are seen as a function of the gate voltage. Our results suggest that these fluctuations reflect the incomplete self-averaging of largely distributed microscopic resistances. We also study the anomalous field effect (conductance dip) already known to exist in large samples and its slow relaxation in the presence of the conductance fluctuations. Within our measurements accuracy, the two phenomena appear to be independent of each other, like two additive contributions to the conductance. We discuss the possible physical meaning of this independence and in particular whether or not this observation is in favor of an electron glass interpretation of slow conductance anomaly relaxations.     

Enhancement of conductance fluctuations in two-dimensional mesoscopic electron systems with valley structures

Conductance fluctuations are studied in twodimensional mesoscopic electron system with a two-hold valley degeneracy (n _v =2), which corresponds to the inversion layer of Si-MOSFET formed in (1,0,0) plane. It is shown that the intervalley scattering modifies conductance fluctuations depending on the ratio, Min { _c , _T }/ _v , where _v = ( – 2)/2 and _c , _T , and are, respectively, system traversal time, thermal diffusion time, intervalley scattering time and total life time of electrons. Conductance fluctuations are no longer universal and vary from G _univ 0.862·e ²/h to {ie223-5} at low temperatures even for isotropic systems. The conductance fluctuations increase with decreasing system size, increasing electron density and increasing intervalley scattering time. The effect of intervalley scattering is essentially the same as that of intersubband scattering as previously reported. At finite temperatures where _{T c} , the intervalley scattering modifies the fluctuations through the change in the energy correlation range to results in the reduction of the conductance fluctuations. In Si-MOSFET formed in (1, 1, 1) plane, wheren _v =6, more enhanced fluctuations are expected. Experimental studies are desired on theoretically predicted points.     

Kondo effect and mesoscopic fluctuations

Two important themes in nanoscale physics in the last two decades are correlations between electrons and mesoscopic fluctuations. Here we review our recent work on the intersection of these two themes. The setting is the Kondo effect, a paradigmatic example of correlated electron physics, in a nanoscale system with mesoscopic fluctuations; in particular, we consider a small quantum dot coupled to a finite reservoir (which itself may be a large quantum dot). We discuss three aspects of this problem. First, in the high-temperature regime, we argue that a Kondo temperature T _k which takes into account the mesoscopic fluctuations is a relevant concept: for instance, physical properties are universal functions of T/T _k. Secondly, when the temperature is much less than the mean level spacing due to confinement, we characterize a natural cross-over from weak to strong coupling. This strong coupling regime is itself characterized by well-defined single-particle levels, as one can see from a Nozières Fermi-liquid theory argument. Finally, using a mean-field technique, we connect the mesoscopic fluctuations of the quasiparticles in the weak coupling regime to those at strong coupling.     

Nonequilibrium domain pattern formation in mesoscopic magnetic thin film elements assisted by thermally excited spin fluctuations

The dynamic behavior in the evolving pattern of thermally assisted, nonequilibrium domains in magnetic thin-film elements undergoing ultrafast 180 degrees magnetization reversal was studied. Magnetization reversal enters a fully dynamic regime when the external field conditions are changed much faster than the sample is able to respond. The dynamic pathway develops a complexity not seen in quasistatic reversal but still retains a high level of order with well-developed dynamic domain patterns formed in response to subnanosecond transitions of the external applied magnetic field.     

Universal conductance fluctuations in epitaxial GaMnAs ferromagnets: dephasing by structural and spin disorder

Mesoscopic transport measurements reveal a large effective phase coherence length in epitaxial GaMnAs ferromagnets, contrary to usual 3d-metal ferromagnets. Universal conductance fluctuations of single nanowires are compared for epilayers with a tailored anisotropy. At large magnetic fields, quantum interferences are due to structural disorder only, and an unusual behavior related to hole-induced ferromagnetism is evidenced, for both quantum interferences and decoherence. At small magnetic fields, phase coherence is shown to persist down to zero field, even in presence of magnons, and an additional spin disorder contribution to quantum interferences is observed under domain walls nucleation.     

Conductance and conductance fluctuations of mesoscopic systems with different symmetries: a statistical scattering theory approach

A theoretical model of mesoscopic systems, recently introduced by Iida et al. (IWZ), is extended to the case of systems with spin dependent interactions and systems of broken time reversal invariance. The quantum mechanical time reversal operator is represented by an operator acting in a space of abstract matrix fields. Thereby, the discussion of systems with different time reversal behaviour can be unified almost entirely. We recast the IWZ-model in a new parametrization, which is more closely related to other field theoretic models of mesoscopic systems, than the original one.     

Critical fluctuations in a mesoscopic superconducting ring

The nonlocal magnetoconductivity fluctuations in a superconducting submicron ring, with radius comparable to the Ginzburg-Landau coherence length, are studied. The order parameter mode separation yields to the solution of the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation and the paraconductivity Fourier components are calculated in the vicinity of the critical temperature, including the critical fluctuation region. The homogeneous component has a logarithmic singularity at T(c) while the other components are found to be not singular.