Signatures of subband quantization in the Coulomb blockade regime of a disordered quantum wire

Abstract

Abstract We report experiments on the two-terminal conductance of a long disordered quantum wire in a perpendicular magnetic field. Pronouncedly enhanced magnetoconductance in magnetic fields of intermediate strength is observed in the Coulomb blockade regime, which is well explained using the boundary roughness scattering and the subband quantization of the quantum wire, by modeling the disordered quantum wire as that of a quantum dot defined in a quantum wire. Assuming a parabolic constriction in the disordered quantum wire, we further obtained the magnetic field dependence of high energy levels in the quantum dot and the gate voltage dependence of the effective width of the quantum wire. Our results may provide useful information for further studies on integrated structures in on-chip laboratories.