Mesoscopic fluctuations of thermopower in a periodic antidot lattice

The mesoscopic fluctuations of thermopower (MFT) were experimentally observed in an AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction with a low-resistance (～0.02h/e²) periodic antidot lattice in the situation where the mesoscopic fluctuations of conductance (MFC) were absent to within the experimental accuracy. The MFT spectrum contained a periodic component associated with the Aharonov-Bohm h/e oscillations in the area occupied by one antidot, whereas the h/2e oscillations were not observed. It is shown that a sizable contribution to the MFT comes from the interference of electron trajectories localized inside billiards formed by four neighboring antidots. Contrary to MFC, the MFT autocorrelation function in single billiards deviates from the Lorentzian form.     

Observation of commensurability oscillations of thermopower in an antidot lattice

Commensurability oscillations of thermopower in a square antidot lattice are observed. The oscillations are attributed to the geometrical resonances of the classical electron motion in a magnetic field and are much more pronounced than the corresponding magnetoresistance oscillations. The off-diagonal component of the thermopower tensor (the Nernst-Ettingshausen effect) changes sign at resonances. Additional measurements of magnetoresistance verify the correctness of the method used for thermopower measurements and provide information on the temperature distribution in the sample.     

Effective magnetic monopoles and universal conductance fluctuations

The observation of isolated positive and negative charges, but not isolated magnetic north and south poles, is an old puzzle. Instead, evidence of effective magnetic monopoles has been found in the abstract momentum space. Apart from Hall-related effects, few observable consequences of these abstract monopoles are known. Here, we show that it is possible to manipulate the monopoles by external magnetic fields and probe them by universal conductance fluctuation measurements in ferromagnets with strong spin-orbit coupling. The observed fluctuations are not noise, but reproducible quasiperiodic oscillations as a function of magnetization direction, a novel Berry phase fingerprint of the magnetic monopoles.     

Weak localization and universal conductance fluctuations in multi-layer graphene

We have performed magneto transport measurements on a multi-layer graphene device fabricated by conventional mechanical exfoliation. Suppression of weak localization (WL) as evidenced by the negative magnetoresistance (NMR) centered at zero field, and reproducible universal conductance fluctuations (UCFs) are observed. Interestingly, it is found that the phase coherence lengths calculated by fitting the observed NMR to conventional WL theory are longer than those determined from fitting the amplitudes of the UCFs to theory in the low temperature regime (T ≤ 8 K). In the high temperature regime (T > 8 K), the phase coherence lengths calculated by fitting the observed NMR to conventional WL theory are shorter than those determined from fitting the amplitudes of the UCFs to theory. Our new results therefore indicate a difference in the electron phase-breaking process between the two models of WL and UCFs in graphene. We speculate that the presence of the capping and bottom graphene layers, which leads the enhancement of disorder in-between, improves the localization condition for WL effect during carrier transportation in the low temperature regime. With increasing temperature, the localization condition for WL in multi-layer graphene becomes much weaker due to strong thermal damping. Therefore, the phase coherence lengths calculated by fitting the observed NMR to conventional WL theory are shorter than those determined from fitting the amplitudes of the UCFs to theory at high temperatures.     

Quantum fluctuations and the universal kinetic inductance of granular superconducting films

The same mean-field theory for an array of Josephson junctions that describes the onset of superconductivity at normal state resistance R_N^(c) yields the kinetic inductance, L, for R_N<R_N^(c). The predicted universal behavior of L, as a function of R_N/R_N^(c), provides a further test of the theory of quantum fluctuations.     

Scaling properties of universal conductance fluctuations in quasi ballistic narrow wires

We study the scaling properties of universal conductance fluctuations, observed in the magneto-resistance of quasi ballistic, split gate wires. In such devices the correlation field analysis is not simply determined by theoretical predictions for corresponding diffusive systems, and we discuss this breakdown in terms of a spreading of phase coherent electron interference, into the ungated regions of the devices. In order to characterise this effect we develop a simple model, in which the degree of spreading is represented by a single parameter γ. Performing this analysis we find that γ scales as a simple function of the wire length and width, enabling us to characterise the interplay of interference from the different regions of the split gate wire.     

Statistical scattering theory, the supersymmetry method and universal conductance fluctuations

This paper describes a novel analytical approach to the problem of conductance fluctuations in mesoscopic systems which, in particular, gives account of the influence of the coupling to external leads. We consider the case of a linear disordered sample in the metallic regime, which is coupled to two ideally conducting external leads. Using the many-channel approximation to Landauer's formula, we relate the conductance to the total transmission probability through the sample. The microscopic Hamiltonian of the quasi-one-dimensional disordered sample is formulated in terms of a random matrix, and the elements of the associated scattering matrix which determine the transmission are constructed from statistical scattering theory. We show that in addition to the Thouless energy, E_c, and the mean level spacing, d, there exists in the theory, a third energy scale, Γ, determined by the number of channels in the leads and the strength of the coupling between disordered sample and leads. Related to Γ, is a new length scale, L₀. We find that for sample lengths L >L₀, the properties of the conductance depend only weakly on the coupling to the external leads and, for very large L, become identical with those of quasi-one-dimensional conductors in the weak localization limit. On the other hand, for L < L₀, the coupling to the leads strongly affects the behaviour of both the average and the variance of the conductance. The magnitude of L₀ is typically several magnitudes of ten times the elastic mean free path and thus comparable to the sizes of experimental devices. A further novel aspect of our work is the demonstration that the assumption of GOE statistics for the Hamiltonian is sufficient to yield universal conductance fluctuations.     

High-pressure thermopower of sulfur

First measurements of the thermopower and transverse magnetoresistance of sulfur at ultrahigh pressures of up to ～40 GPa are reported. The conductivity of sulfur, as that of other elemental Group VI semiconductors (Te, Se), is shown to be due to valence band holes. The variation of band gap width is derived from the pressure dependence of thermopower. The observed negative magnetoresistance of sulfur at P ～ 30 GPa indicates a low hole mobility and suggests the existence of an indirect minimum gap in the electronic spectrum. The pressure-induced variation of the electronic structure of sulfur is discussed in terms of the Peierls lattice instability model.     

Observation of low-frequency fluctuations in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

Low-frequency fluctuations, which are typical irregular oscillations in edge-emitting semiconductor lasers, are experimentally observed for the y-polarization mode (y is the direction along the optical axis of a laser material) in a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser with optical feedback.     

Spin currents in rough graphene nanoribbons: universal fluctuations and spin injection

We investigate spin conductance in zigzag graphene nanoribbons and propose a spin injection mechanism based only on graphitic nanostructures. We find that nanoribbons with atomically straight, symmetric edges show zero spin conductance but nonzero spin Hall conductance. Only nanoribbons with asymmetrically shaped edges give rise to a finite spin conductance and can be used for spin injection into graphene. Furthermore, nanoribbons with rough edges exhibit mesoscopic spin conductance fluctuations with a universal value of rmsG_{s} approximately 0.4e/4pi.