Correlation-induced single-flux-quantum penetration in quantum rings

Abstract

The confined electronic states of mesoscopic structures in a magnetic field are arranged in Landau levels consisting of spatially discrete eigenstates. These Landau orbits are the quantum mechanical analogue of classical cyclotron orbits. Here we present magnetoconductance oscillations in semiconductor rings, which visualize the spatial discreteness of the Landau orbits in high magnetic fields (typically B>2 T). We will show that these oscillations are caused by the flux-quantized, discrete electronic size of the ring leading to a corresponding modulation of its two-point conductance. The oscillation period is given by the number of flux quanta penetrating the conducting area of the structure. These high-field oscillations are distinctively different from the well-known Aharonov-Bohm effect, where, most generally, the penetration of individual flux quanta h/e through a nanostructure causes periodic crossings of field-dependent energy levels, which give rise to magneto-quantum oscillations in its conductance. © 2010 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.