Exploiting Aharonov-Bohm oscillations to probe Klein tunneling in tunable pn-junctions in graphene
Jan Dauber, Koen J. A. Reijnders, Luca Banszerus, Alexander Epping, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Mikhail I. Katsnelson, Fabian Hassler, Christoph Stampfer
One of the unique features of graphene is that the Fermi wavelength of its charge carriers can be tuned electrostatically over a wide range. This allows in principle to tune the transparency of a pn-junction electrostatically, as this depends on the ratio between the physical extension of the junction and the electron wavelength, i.e. on the effective width of the junction itself. However, this simple idea - which would allow to switch smoothly between a Veselago lens and a Klein-collimator - has proved to be difficult to demonstrate experimentally because of the limited amount of independently-tunable parameters available in most setups. In this work, we present transport measurements in a quasi-ballistic Aharonov-Bohm graphene ring with gate tunable pn-junctions in one arm, and show that the interference patterns provide unambiguous information on the Klein tunneling efficiency and on the junctions effective width. We find a gate-controlled transparency of the pn-junctions ranging from 35-100%. Our results are in excellent agreement with a semiclassical description.
We briefly review the theoretical formulations and applications of the Aharonov--Bohm effect and the Aharonov--Casher effect with emphasis on mesoscopic physics. Topics relating to the Aharonov--Bohm effect include: locality, periodicity, non-integrable phase factors, Abelian gauge theory, interference, the spectrum and persistent current of electrons on a ring pierced by a magnetic field, Onsager reciprocity relations, and Aharonov--Bohm interferometer. Topics relating to the Aharonov--Casher effect include: a magnetic dipole in an electric field, locality, periodicity, non-Abelian gauge inva…
We investigate electron transport under the two impurity Kondo problem with the Aharonov--Bohm and Aharonov--Casher effects. These interference effects induce the Ising-coupled Ruderman--Kittel--Kasuya--Yosida (RKKY) interaction. We discuss the inter- and intra-site spin conductance as well as charge conductance in the Kondo and the mixed-valence regimes using the slave boson mean field approximation.
The scattering of electrons with inhomogeneities produces modulations in the local density of states of a metal. We show that electron interference contributions to these modulations are affected by the magnetic field via the Aharonov-Bohm effect. This can be exploited in a simple STM setup that serves as an Aharonov-Bohm interferometer at the nanometer scale.
We define two laterally gated small quantum dots (~ 15 electrons) in an Aharonov-Bohm geometry in which the coupling between the two dots can be broadly changed. For weakly coupled quantum dots we find Aharonov-Bohm oscillations. In an intermediate coupling regime we concentrate on the molecular states of the double dot and extract the magnetic field dependence of the coherent coupling.
We study electronic transport through an Aharonov-Bohm interferometer with single-level quantum dots embedded in the two arms. The full counting statistics in the shot-noise regime is calculated to first order in the tunnel-coupling strength. The interplay of interference and charging energy in the dots leads to a dynamical channel blockade that is tunable by the magnetic flux penetrating the Aharonov-Bohm ring. We find super-Poissonian behavior with diverging second and higher cumulants when the Aharonov-Bohm flux approaches an integer multiple of the flux quantum.
We predict the force-free scalar Aharonov-Bohm effect of a Cooper pair box in an electric field at a distance without forming a closed path of the interfering charges. The superposition of different charge states plays a major role in eliminating the closed loop, which is distinct from the original topological Aharonov-Bohm effect. The phase shift is determined by the charge-state-dependent local field interaction energy. In addition, our proposed setup does not require a pulse experiment for fast switching of a potential, which eliminates the major experimental obstacle for observing the idea…
We study combined interference effects due to the Aharonov-Bohm (AB) and Aharonov-Casher (AC) phases in a Josephson supercurrent of local and nonlocal (split) Cooper pairs. We analyze a junction between two superconductors interconnected through a normal-state nanostructure with either (i) a ring, where single-electron interference is possible, or (ii) two parallel nanowires, where the single-electron interference can be absent, but the cross Andreeev reflection can occur. In the low-transmission regime in both geometries the AB and AC effects can be related to only local or nonlocal Cooper pa…
Aharonov-Bohm oscillations are observed in a graphene quantum ring with a top gate covering one arm of the ring. As graphene is a gapless semiconductor this geometry allows to study not only the quantum interference of electrons with electrons or holes with holes but also the unique situation of quantum interference between electrons and holes. The period and amplitude of the observed Aharonov-Bohm oscillations are independent of the sign of the applied gate voltage showing the equivalence between unipolar and dipolar interference.
Using conformal mapping technique, compact and general analytic expressions for the effects of magnetic fluxes on conductance and Fano factor of undoped graphene nanoflakes in pseudodiffusive regime are derived.
We present a statistical readout method for quantum interferences based on time series analysis of consecutive single electron transfers through a double quantum dot Aharonov-Bohm interferometer. Waiting time distributions qualitatively indicate the presence of interferences and provide information on orbital-detuning and coherent interdot-electron transfer. Interdot transfer induced oscillations are Aharonov-Bohm phase sensitive, while those due to level detuning are phase-independent. The signature of the quantum interference in the waiting time distribution is more apparent for weakly coupl…
With an atomic force microscope a ring geometry with self-aligned in-plane gates was directly written into a GaAs/AlGaAs-heterostructure. Transport measurements in the open regime show only one transmitting mode and Aharonov-Bohm oscillations with more than 50% modulation are observed in the conductance. The tuning via in-plane gates allows to study the Aharonov-Bohm effect in the whole range from the open ring to the Coulomb-blockade regime.
The simultaneous effect of intense THz laser and in-plane electric fields on Aharonov-Bohm effect in single isotropic quantum rings is investigated using the non-perturbative Floquet theory in high-frequency limit. It is shown that in isotropic quantum rings the intense THz laser and in-plane electric field create unusual Aharonov-Bohm oscillations. For fixed values of intense THz laser field parameter, the amplitudes of Aharonov-Bohm oscillations can be effectively tuned by changing the electric field direction. Furthermore, for fixed values of electric field strength and laser field paramete…
We study the influence of spin polarization on the degree of coherence of electron transport through interacting quantum dots. To this end, we identify transport regimes in which the degree of coherence can be related to the visibility of the Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in the current through a quantum-dot Aharonov-Bohm interferometer with one normal and one ferromagnetic lead. For these regimes, we calculate the visibility and, thus, the degree of coherence, as a function of the degree of spin polarization of the ferromagnetic lead.
After briefly reviewing the Fano effect, we explain why it may be relevant to various types of Aharonov-Bohm interferometers. We discuss both closed (electron conserving) and open interferometers, in which one path contains either a simple quantum dot or a decorated quantum dot (with more than one internal state or a parallel path). The possible relevance to some hitherto unexplained experimental features is also discussed.
Proximity induced quantum coherence of electrons in multi-terminal voltage-driven hybrid normal-superconducting nanostructures may result in a non-trivial interplay between topology-dependent Josephson and Aharonov-Bohm effects. We elucidate a trade-off between stimulation of the voltage-dependent Josephson current due to non-equilibrium effects and quantum dephasing of quasiparticles causing reduction of both Josephson and Aharonov-Bohm currents. We also predict phase-shifted quantum coherent oscillations of the induced electrostatic potential as a function of the externally applied magnetic …
A mesoscopic ring subject to the Rashba spin-orbit interaction and sequentially coupled to an interacting quantum dot, in the presence of Aharonov-Bohm flux, is proposed as a flux tunable tunneling diode. The analysis of the conductance by means of the nonequilibrium Green's function technique, shows an intrinsic bistability at varying the Aharonov-Bohm flux when 2U > πΓ, U being the charging energy on the dot and Γthe effective resonance width. The bistability properties are discussed in connection with spin-switch effects and logical storage device applications.
We study electron transport through multiply-connected mesoscopic geometries containing interacting quantum dots. Our formulation covers both equilibrium and non-equilibrium physics. We discuss the relation of coherent transport channels through the quantum dot to flux-sensitive Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in the total conductance of the device. Contributions to transport in first and second order in the intrinsic line width of the dot levels are addressed in detail. We predict an interaction-induced asymmetry in the amplitude of the interference signal around resonance peaks as a consequence o…
The nonlinear electronic transport properties of a ballistic Aharonov-Bohm ring are investigated. It is demonstrated how the electronic interaction breaks the phase rigidity in a two-probe mesoscopic device as the voltage bias is increased. The possibility of studying interference effects in the nonlinear regime is addressed. The occurrence of magnetic feld symmetries in higher order conductance coefficients is analyzed. The results are compared with recent experimental data.
It is commonly believed that the Aharonov-Bohm (AB) effect is a typical feature of the motion of a charged particle interacting with the electromagnetic vector potential. Here we present a magnetophotoluminescence study of type-II InP/GaAs self-assembled quantum dots, unambiguously revealing the Aharonov-Bohm-type oscillations for neutral excitons when the hole ground state changes its angular momentum from lh = 0 to lh = 1, 2, and 3. The hole ring parameters derived from a simple model are in excellent agreement with the structural parameters for this system.
The amplitude of the Bohm-Aharonov oscillations of a particle moving around a ring threaded by a magnetic flux and coupled to different dissipative environments is studied. The decay of the oscillations when increasing the radius of the ring is shown to depend on the spatial features of the coupling. When the environment is modelled by the Caldeira-Leggett bath of oscillators, or the particle is coupled by the Coulomb potential to a dirty electron gas, interference effects are suppressed beyond a finite length, even at zero temperature. A finite renormalization of the Aharonov-Bohm oscillation…
Aharonov-Bohm interferences in the quantum Hall regime are observed when electrons are transmitted between two edge channels. Such a phenomenon has been realized in 2D systems such as quantum point contacts, anti-dots and p-n junctions. Based on a theoretical investigation of the magnetotransport in stepped graphene, a new kind of Aharonov-Bohm interferometers is proposed herewith. Indeed, when a strong magnetic field is applied in a proper direction, oppositely propagating edge states can be achieved in both terrace and facet zones of the step, leading to the interedge scatterings and hence s…
We have probed the magnetic field dependence of the electron phase coherence time $τ_ϕ$ by measuring the Aharonov-Bohm conductance oscillations of mesoscopic Cu rings. Whereas $τ_ϕ$ determined from the low-field magnetoresistance saturates below 1 K, the amplitude of Aharonov-Bohm $h/e$ oscillations increases strongly on a magnetic field scale proportional to the temperature. This provides strong evidence that a likely explanation for the frequently observed saturation of $τ_ϕ$ at low temperature in weakly disordered metallic thin films is the presence of extremely dilute magnetic impurities.
A novel conductance oscillation in a twisted quantum ring composed of a helical atomic configuration is theoretically predicted. Internal torsion of the ring is found to cause a quantum phase shift in the wavefunction that describes the electron's motion along the ring. The resulting conductance oscillation is free from magnetic flux penetrating inside the ring, which is in complete contrast with the ordinary Aharonov-Bohm effect observed in untwisted quantum rings.
Quantum interference in Aharonov-Bohm (AB) ring structure provides additional control of spin at mesoscopic scale. We propose a scheme for spin filter by studying the coherent transport through the AB structure with lateral magnetic modulation on both arms of the ring structure. Large spin polarized current can be obtained with many energy channels.
We investigate the magnetoresistance of a side-gated ring structure etched out of single-layer graphene. We observe Aharonov-Bohm oscillations with about 5% visibility. We are able to change the relative phases of the wave functions in the interfering paths and induce phase jumps of pi in the Aharonov-Bohm oscillations by changing the voltage applied to the side gate or the back gate. The observed data can be well interpreted within existing models for 'dirty metals' giving a phase coherence length of the order of 1 micrometer at a temperature of 500mK.
The effect of electron-phonon coupling on transport through a pair of strongly correlated quantum dots embedded in the Aharonov-Bohm ring is considered in the mean field slave boson Kotliar-Ruckenstein approach. It is shown that coupling with phonons opens transport gap in the region of double occupancy. Low-bias conductance and thermopower provide information on electron-phonon coupling strength.
The Aharonov-Bohm and superradiant effect on the redaitive decay rate of an exciton in a quantum ring is studied. With the increasing of ring radius, the exciton decay rate is enhanced by superradiance, while the amplitude of AB oscillation is decreased. The competition between these two effects is shown explicitly and may be observable in time-resolved exeriments.
We report on magnetoresistance transport measurements performed on a bipartite tiling of rhombus in the GaAs/GaAlAs system. We observe for the first time large amplitude $h/e$ oscillations in this network as compared to the one measured in square lattices of similar size. These oscillations are the signature of a recently predicted localization phenomenon induced by Aharonov-Bohm interferences in this peculiar network.
In this Reply we argue that (i) the Hamiltonian, Eq. (17) in our paper (Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 070405 (2012)), is definitely Lorentz invariant; (ii) the conditions of generating topological Aharonov-Casher(AC) and Scalar Aharonov-Bohm (SAB) effects are essential and physically meaningful; (iii) the Hamiltonians both in Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 2847 (1995) and arXiv:1311.4011 are not suitable to describe the polarized spinor particles.
The Aharonov-Bohm effect is investigated in two-dimensional, single-terminal quantum rings in magnetic fields by using time-dependent density-functional theory. We find multiple transport loops leading to the oscillation periods of h/(en), where n is the number of loops. We show that the Aharonov-Bohm oscillations are relatively weakly affected by the electron-electron interactions, whereas the ring width has a strong effect on the characteristics of the oscillations. Our results propose that in experimental quantum-ring devices showing clear Aharonov-Bohm oscillations the electron current is …
We analyze a Hanbury Brown Twiss geometry in which particles are injected from two independent sources into a mesoscopic electrical conductor. The set-up has the property that all partial waves end in different reservoirs without generating any single particle interference. There is no single particle Aharonov-Bohm effect. However, exchange effects lead to two-particle Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in current correlations. We demonstrate that the two-particle Aharonov-Bohm effect is connected to orbital entanglement which can be used for violation of a Bell Inequality.
We show that transport and thermodynamic properties of \emph{singly-connected} disordered conductors exhibit quantum Aharonov - Bohm oscillations with the total magnetic flux through the system. The oscillations are associated with the interference contribution from a special class of electron trajectories confined to the surface of the sample.
Excitons in vertically stacked type-II quantum dots experience the topological magnetic phase and demonstrate the Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in the emission intensity. Photoluminescence of vertically stacked ZnTe/ZnSe quantum dots is measured in magnetic fields up to 31 T. The Aharonov-Bohm oscillations are found in the magnetic-field dependence of emission intensity. The positions of the peaks of the emission intensity are in a good agreement with numerical simulations of excitons in stacked quantum dots.
We establish systematic consolidation of the Aharonov-Bohm and Aharonov-Casher effects including their scalar counterparts. Their formal correspondences in acquiring topological phases are revealed on the basis of the gauge symmetry in non-simply connected spaces and the adiabatic condition for the state of magnetic dipoles. In addition, investigation of basic two-body interactions between an electric charge and a magnetic dipole clarifies their appropriate relative motions and discloses physical interrelations between the effects. Based on the two-body interaction, we also construct an exact …
We analyse the conductance of the Aharonov-Bohm one-dimensional quantum ring touching a quantum wire. It is shown that in accordance with experimental data the period of the AB oscillations strongly depends on the chemical potential and the Rashba coupling parameter. The dependence of the conductance on the carrier's energy is shown to reveal the Fano resonances.
We analyse the conductance of the Aharonov - Bohm (AB) one- dimensional quantum ring touching a quantum wire. The period of the AB oscillations is shown to be dependent strongly on the chemical potential and the Rashba coupling parameter that is in a good agreement with the studies of such a device prepared on the Si(100) surface.
A review of the random magnetic impurity model, introduced in the context of the integer Quantum Hall effect, is presented. It models an electron moving in a plane and coupled to random Aharonov-Bohm vortices carrying a fraction of the quantum of flux. Recent results on its perturbative expansion are given. In particular, some funny families of integrals show up to be related to the Riemann $ζ(3)$ and $ζ(2)$.
Measurements of the Little-Parks oscillations at measuring current much lower than the persistent current give unambiguous evidence of the dc current flowing against the force of the dc electric field because of the Aharonov-Bohm effect. This result can assume that an additional force is needed for description of the Aharonov-Bohm effect observed in semiconductor, normal metal and superconductor nanostructures in contrast to the experimental result obtained recently for the case of the two-slit interference experiment.
We predict that a charge under the influence of a quantum electrodynamic potential exhibits a force-free Aharonov-Bohm effect. The specific system considered in this study is a superconducting charge qubit nonlocally interacting with a cavity electromagnetic field. We find that this nonlocal interaction gives rise to remarkable quantum electrodynamic phenomena such as vacuum Rabi splitting and oscillation, and Lamb shift, under the condition that the qubit is located in an electromagnetic-field-free region. Our result can be verified in a realistic experimental setup, and provides a new approa…
We investigate Faraday's law of induction manifested in the quantum state of Aharonov-Bohm loops. In particular, we propose a flux-switching experiment for a double-dot AB ring to verify the phase shift induced by Faraday's law. We show that the induced {\em Faraday phase} is geometric and nontopological. Our study demonstrates that the relation between the local phases of a ring at different fluxes is not arbitrary but is instead determined by Faraday's inductive law, which is in strong contrast to the arbitrary local phase of an Aharonov-Bohm ring for a given flux.
We report an Aharonov-Bohm superperiod of five magnetic flux quanta (5h/e) observed in a Laughlin quasiparticle interferometer, where an edge channel of the 1/3 fractional quantum Hall fluid encircles an island of the 2/5 fluid. This result does not violate the auge invariance argument of the Byers-Yang theorem because the magnetic flux, in addition to affecting the Aharonov-Bohm phase of the encircling 1/3 quasiparticles, creates the 2/5 quasiparticles in the island. The superperiod is accordingly understood as imposed by the anyonic statistical interaction of Laughlin quasiparticles.
We investigate the properties of strongly correlated electronic models on a flux-threaded ring connected to semi-infinite free-electron leads. The interference pattern of such an Aharonov-Bohm ring shows sharp dips at certain flux values, determined by the filling, which are a consequence of spin-charge separation in a nanoscopic system.
Phase-coherent acoustoelectric transport is reported.Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in the acoustoelectric current with visibility exceeding 100% were observed in mesoscopic GaAs rings as a function of an external magnetic field at cryogenic temperatures. A theoretical analysis of the acoustoelectric transport in ballistic devices is proposed to model experimental observations. Our findings highlight a close analogy between acoustoelectric transport and thermoelectric properties in ballistic devices.
We consider the phase-coherent transport of electrons passing through an Aharonov-Bohm ring while interacting with a tunnel charge in a double quantum dot (representing a charge qubit) which couples symmetrically to both arms of the ring. For Aharonov-Bohm flux Phi_AB=h/2e we find that electrons can only be transmitted when they flip the charge qubit's pseudospin parity an odd number of times. The perfect correlations of the dynamics of the pseudospin and individual electronic transmission and reflection events can be used to entangle the charge qubit with an individual passing electron.
In this Comment we point out (i) that the Hamiltonian, Eq. (17) in the Letter(Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 070405 (2012)), is not a relativistic Hamiltonian, (ii) then that the conditions in the Letter are irrelevant for a topological AC and SAB effects, and (iii) conclusively that the non-relativistic Hamiltonian employed by Peshkin and Lipkin (Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 2847 (1995)) has the same $U(1)_{mm}$ gauge structure for a fixed spin and then is not wrong, but their incorrect interpretation of the spin autocorrelations led to the incorrect conclusion.
We study the persistent currents induced by both the Aharonov-Bohm and Aharonov-Casher effects in a one-dimensional mesoscopic ring coupled to a side-branch quantum dot at Kondo resonance. For privileged values of the Aharonov-Bohm-Casher fluxes, the problem can be mapped onto an integrable model, exactly solvable by a Bethe ansatz. In the case of a pure magnetic Aharonov-Bohm flux, we find that the presence of the quantum dot has no effect on the persistent current. In contrast, the Kondo resonance interferes with the spin-dependent Aharonov-Casher effect to induce a current which, in the str…
Topological Thouless pumping and Aharonov-Bohm effect are both fundamental effects enabled by the topological properties of the system. Here, we study both effects together: topological pumping of interacting particles through Aharonov-Bohm rings. This system can prepare highly entangled many-particle states, transport them via topological pumping and interfere them, revealing a fractional flux quantum. The type of the generated state is revealed by non-trivial Aharonov-Bohm interference patterns that could be used for quantum sensing. The reflections induced by the interference result from tr…
The Aharonov-Bohm (AB) effect for the singular string associated with the Dirac monopole carrying an arbitrary magnetic charge is studied. It is shown that the emerging difficulties in explanation of the AB effect may be removed by introducing nonassociative path-dependent wave functions. This provides the absence of the AB effect for the Dirac string of magnetic monopole with an arbitrary magnetic charge.
