Capacitance spectroscopy of compressible and incompressible stripes in a narrow electron channel

We study the capacitance of single electron wires in high quantizing magnetic fields. The capacitance spectra obtained on 300 nm wide electron channels are interpreted with a simple model considering the geometry of the incompressible stripes in the electron channel as function of filling factor. The capacitance spectra directly reflect the potential form of the wire edge. This is experimentally demonstrated by the dependence on the confinement potential as well as by a clear asymmetry of the capacitance minimum at filling factor v=2 that can be well explained with the model. For comparison we present capacitance spectra obtained on very narrow, but otherwise similar quantum wires, in which quantization into one-dimensional subbands dominates the behavior.