Conductance Of Quantum Point Contact Research Articles

Unusual Quasiparticles and Tunneling Conductance in Quantum Point Contacts in ν=2/3 Fractional Quantum Hall Systems.

Understanding topological matter in the fractional quantum Hall (FQH) effect requires identifying the nature of edge state quasiparticles. FQH edge state at the filling factor ν=2/3 in the spin-polarized and unpolarized phases is represented by the two modes of composite fermions (CF) with the parallel or opposite spins described by the chiral Luttinger liquids. Tunneling through a quantum point contact (QPC) between different or similar spin phases is solved exactly. With the increase of the applied voltage, the QPC conductance grows from zero and saturates at e^{2}/2h while a weak electron tunneling between the edge modes with the same spin transforms into a backscattering carried by the charge q=e/2 quasiparticles. These unusual quasiparticles and conductance plateau emerge when one or two CF spin-polarized modes in the QPC tunnel into a single mode. We propose experiments on the applied voltage and temperature dependence of the QPC conductance and noise that can shed light on the nature of edge states and FQH transport.

Dipolelike dynamical nuclear spin polarization around a quantum point contact

We theoretically investigate the dynamical nuclear spin polarization in a quantum point contact (QPC) at finite magnetic field. We find that when the QPC is tuned to be spin selective, at the conductance of e^2/h, a finite bias induces a dipole-like (spatially anti-symmetric) nuclear polarization: at the QPC center the polarization is zero, while, for GaAs parameters, the nuclear spins down (up) are induced on the source (drain) side. We predict that the dipole-like polarization pattern can be distinguished from a uniform polarization due to a qualitatively different response of the QPC conductance to the NMR field.

Electrical control of charged carriers and excitons in atomically thin materials.

Electrical confinement and manipulation of charge carriers in semiconducting nanostructures are essential for realizing functional quantum electronic devices1-3. The unique band structure4-7 of atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) offers a new route towards realizing novel 2D quantum electronic devices, such as valleytronic devices and valley-spin qubits 8 . 2D TMDs also provide a platform for novel quantum optoelectronic devices9-11 due to their large exciton binding energy12,13. However, controlled confinement and manipulation of electronic and excitonic excitations in TMD nanostructures have been technically challenging due to the prevailing disorder in the material, preventing accurate experimental control of local confinement and tunnel couplings14-16. Here we demonstrate a novel method for creating high-quality heterostructures composed of atomically thin materials that allows for efficient electrical control of excitations. Specifically, we demonstrate quantum transport in the gate-defined, quantum-confined region, observing spin-valley locked quantized conductance in quantum point contacts. We also realize gate-controlled Coulomb blockade associated with confinement of electrons and demonstrate electrical control over charged excitons with tunable local confinement potentials and tunnel couplings. Our work provides a basis for novel quantum opto-electronic devices based on manipulation of charged carriers and excitons.

Electric-field control of conductance in metal quantum point contacts by electric-double-layer gating

An electric-field control of quantized conductance in metal (gold) quantum point contacts (QPCs) is demonstrated by adopting a liquid-gated electric-double-layer (EDL) transistor geometry. Atomic-scale gold QPCs were fabricated by applying the feedback-controlled electrical break junction method to the gold nanojunction. The electric conductance in gold QPCs shows quantized conductance plateaus and step-wise increase/decrease by the conductance quantum, G0 = 2e2/h, as EDL-gate voltage is swept, demonstrating a modulation of the conductance of gold QPCs by EDL gating. The electric-field control of conductance in metal QPCs may open a way for their application to local charge sensing at room temperature.

Mode Specific Backscattering in a Quantum Point Contact.

We demonstrate a scanning gate grid measurement technique consisting in measuring the conductance of a quantum point contact (QPC) as a function of gate voltage at each tip position. Unlike conventional scanning gate experiments, it allows investigating QPC conductance plateaus affected by the tip at these positions. We compensate the capacitive coupling of the tip to the QPC and discover that interference fringes coexist with distorted QPC plateaus. We spatially resolve the mode structure for each plateau.

Giant microwave photo-conductance of a tunnel point contact with a bridged gate

We study the microwave photo-response of a quantum point contact (QPC) formed on a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure with a high-electron-mobility two-dimensional electron gas. The QPCs are fabricated by two types of gates: a traditional split gate and a specially designed bridged gate. We observe a three orders of magnitude enhancement of the dark QPC conductance in the tunneling regime at the incident microwave power density of ∼10 mW/cm2. The response of the bridged-gate structure is more than ten times larger than that of the split-gate QPC. This giant effect and the difference between the two types of gates are explained by the influence of microwaves on the steady-state electron distribution function in the vicinity of the tunnel contact. Experimental results are in good quantitative agreement with theoretical calculations. The bridged-gate QPC can be used for the creation of highly sensitive detectors of electromagnetic radiation.

Electronic Magnetization of a Quantum Point Contact Measured by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance.

We report an electronic magnetization measurement of a quantum point contact (QPC) based on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. We find that NMR signals can be detected by measuring the QPC conductance under in-plane magnetic fields. This makes it possible to measure, from Knight shifts of the NMR spectra, the electronic magnetization of a QPC containing only a few electron spins. The magnetization changes smoothly with the QPC potential barrier height and peaks at the conductance plateau of 0.5×2e^{2}/h. The observed features are well captured by a model calculation assuming a smooth potential barrier, supporting a no bound state origin of the 0.7 structure.

On the zero-bias anomaly and Kondo physics in quantum point contacts near pinch-off

We investigate the linear and non-linear conductance of quantum point contacts (QPCs), in the region near pinch-off where Kondo physics has previously been connected to the appearance of the 0.7 feature. In studies of seven different QPCs, fabricated in the same high-mobility GaAs/AlGaAs heterojunction, the linear conductance is widely found to show the presence of the 0.7 feature. The differential conductance, on the other hand, does not generally exhibit the zero-bias anomaly (ZBA) that has been proposed to indicate the Kondo effect. Indeed, even in the small subset of QPCs found to exhibit such an anomaly, the linear conductance does not always follow the universal temperature-dependent scaling behavior expected for the Kondo effect. Taken collectively, our observations demonstrate that, unlike the 0.7 feature, the ZBA is not a generic feature of low-temperature QPC conduction. We furthermore conclude that the mere observation of the ZBA alone is insufficient evidence for concluding that Kondo physics is active. While we do not rule out the possibility that the Kondo effect may occur in QPCs, our results appear to indicate that its observation requires a very strict set of conditions to be satisfied. This should be contrasted with the case of the 0.7 feature, which has been apparent since the earliest experimental investigations of QPC transport.

The Puzzle of the 0.7 Anomaly in Conductance of Quantum Point Contact Reexamined

Apart from usual quantization steps in the conductance of 1D systems, equal to G0 = 2e /h [1], an additional plateau-like feature appears at a fraction of about 0.7 below the rst conductance step in GaAs-based quantum point contacts (QPCs) [2, 3]. Despite a huge number of research works devoted to this anomalous feature, its origin remains still unclear [4]. Here, an unique explanation of this anomaly is proposed, which relies on the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics: superposition and interference of (spin) states.

Optimization of sample-chip design for stub-matched radio-frequency reflectometry measurements

A radio-frequency (rf) matching circuit with an in situ tunable varactor diode used for rf reflectometry measurements in semiconductor nanostructures is investigated and used to optimize the sample-specific chip design. The samples are integrated in a 2–4 GHz stub-matching circuit consisting of a waveguide stub shunted to the terminated coplanar waveguide. Several quantum point contacts fabricated on a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure with different chip designs are compared. We show that the change of the reflection coefficient for a fixed change in the quantum point contact conductance can be enhanced by a factor of 3 compared to conventional designs by a suitable electrode geometry.

Shot noise suppression in InGaAs/InGaAsP quantum channels

We have measured the shot noise in a quantum point contact (QPC) fabricated by using InGaAs/InGaAsP heterostructure, whose conductance can be electrically tuned by the gate voltages. The reduced shot noise is observed when the QPC conductance equals to N(2e2/h) (N = 4, 5, and 6), which is the direct experimental evidence of the coherent quantized channel formation in the QPC. The deviation of the observed Fano factor from the theory is explained by the electron heating effect generated at the QPC.

Nuclear polarization in quantum point contacts in an in-plane magnetic field

Nuclear spin polarization is typically generated in GaAs quantum point contacts (QPCs) when an out-of-plane magnetic field gives rise to spin-polarized quantum-Hall edge states and a voltage bias drives transitions between the edge states via electron-nuclear flip-flop scattering. Here, we report a similar effect for QPCs in an in-plane magnetic field, where currents are spin polarized but edge states are not formed. The nuclear polarization gives rise to hysteresis in the dc transport characteristics with relaxation time scales around 100 s. The dependence of anomalous QPC conductance features on nuclear polarization provides a useful test of their spin sensitivity.

Possible origin of the 0.5 plateau in the ballistic conductance of quantum point contacts

A non-equilibrium Green function formalism (NEGF) is used to study the conductance of a side-gated quantum point contact (QPC) in the presence of lateral spin-orbit coupling (LSOC). A small difference of bias voltage between the two side gates (SGs) leads to an inversion asymmetry in the LSOC between the opposite edges of the channel. In single electron modeling of transport, this triggers a spontaneous but insignificant spin polarization in the QPC. However, the spin polarization of the QPC is enhanced substantially when the effect of electron-electron interaction is included. The spin polarization is strong enough to result in the occurrence of a conductance plateau at 0.5G0 (G0 = 2e2/h) in the absence of any external magnetic field. In our simulations of a model QPC device, the 0.5 plateau is found to be quite robust and survives up to a temperature of 40K. The spontaneous spin polarization and the resulting magnetization of the QPC can be reversed by flipping the polarity of the source to drain bias or the potential difference between the two SGs. These numerical simulations are in good agreement with recent experimental results for side-gated QPCs made from the low band gap semiconductor InAs.

High-quality quantum point contact in two-dimensional GaAs (311)A hole system

We studied ballistic transport across a quantum point contact (QPC) defined in a high-quality GaAs (311)A two-dimensional hole system using shallow etching and top gating. The QPC conductance exhibits up to 11 quantized plateaus. The ballistic one-dimensional subbands are tuned by changing the lateral confinement and the Fermi energy of the holes in the QPC. We demonstrate that the positions of the plateaus (in gate voltage), the source-drain data, and the negative magnetoresistance data can be understood in a simple model that takes into account the variation, with gate bias, of the hole density and the width of the QPC conducting channel.

Electron interaction and spin effects in quantum wires, quantum dots and quantum pointcontacts: a first-principles mean-field approach

We have developed a mean-field first-principles approach for studying electronic andtransport properties of low dimensional lateral structures in the integer quantum Hallregime. The electron interactions and spin effects are included within the spin densityfunctional theory in the local density approximation where the conductance, thedensity, the effective potentials and the band structure are calculated on thebasis of the Green’s function technique. In this paper we present a systematicreview of the major results obtained on the energetics, spin polarization, effectiveg factor, magnetosubband and edge state structure of split-gate and cleaved-edge overgrownquantum wires as well as on the conductance of quantum point contacts (QPCs) and openquantum dots. In particular, we discuss how the spin-resolved subband structure, thecurrent densities, the confining potentials, as well as the spin polarization of the electronand current densities in quantum wires and antidots evolve when an applied magnetic fieldvaries. We also discuss the role of the electron interaction and spin effects in theconductance of open systems focusing our attention on the 0.7 conductance anomaly in theQPCs. Special emphasis is given to the effect of the electron interaction on the conductanceoscillations and their statistics in open quantum dots as well as to interpretation of therelated experiments on the ultralow temperature saturation of the coherence time in opendots.

Quantum point contact conductance in normal-metal/insulator/metal/p-wave superconductor junction

In the framework of the Blonder–Tinkham–Klapwijk model we have studied the quasiparticle transport in normal-metal/insulator/metal/p wave superconductor Junction (N/I/N/p), where the N/I/N region is a quantum wire. We calculate the quantum point contact conductance in N/I/N/p as a function of the bias voltage at zero temperature based on the Bogoliubov–de Gennes equations. Unlike the case in N/I/N/d superconductor junctions, the zero-bias conductance peaks appear in the single-mode case. The number of resonances for the quantum point contact differential conductance for the p x wave superconductor is different from that for the p y wave superconductor.

Investigations of the non-linear transient response of quantum point contacts using pulsed excitation with sub-nanosecond time resolution

We review recent work where we have investigated the non-linear transient response of quantum point contacts (QPCs) using pulsed excitation with sub-nanosecond time resolution. The transient response of these devices is shown to be dominated by a large parallel capacitance that is independent of the QPC conductance and pulse amplitude. These characteristics lead us to suggest that the capacitance is associated with charging of the two-dimensional reservoirs that source and sink current to the QPC. Our investigations also show that the transient conductance of the QPC must develop very quickly as the voltage pulse is applied, at least on a time scale shorter than the fastest rise time (2 ns) used in the experiments. We also find the existence of a characteristic fixed point in the non-linear conductance, at which its value is bias independent. The fixed point appears to correspond to the situation where the unbiased QPC is almost depopulated and can be accounted for by considering the unidirectional population of QPC subbands by the voltage bias. To discuss the behavior of the transient conductance away from the fixed point, we find that it should be necessary to consider the influence of the applied bias on the QPC profile and electron–phonon scattering.

Pulsed measurements of the nonlinear conductance of quantum point contacts

The conductance of quantum point contacts (QPCs) subject to strongly nonlinear source-drain biasing is investigated with transient pulses. The authors investigations reveal the presence of a characteristic fixed point, at which the transient conductance (Gt) is bias independent. This point corresponds to the situation where the unbiased QPC is almost depopulated and can apparently be accounted for by considering the unidirectional population of QPC subbands by the transient voltage. To discuss the variations of Gt away from the fixed point, it is necessary to consider the influence of the applied bias on the QPC profile and electron-phonon scattering.

Hysteretic effects in lateral nanostructures caused by long-lived quantum-Hall eddy currents

Coulomb blockade studies of lateral quantum dots and measurements of the quantised conductance of quantum point contacts, in high magnetic fields, reveal novel features which are hysteretic in magnetic-field sweep direction. These features are associated with long-lived eddy currents, induced in the 2D electron gas leads in these devices as the magnetic field sweeps and the 2DEG enters the quantum Hall effect state. Torsion-balance magnetometry measurements confirm the presence of these induced currents, and their influence on the nanostructures. The decay of the eddy currents, after the magnetic field sweep is stopped, exhibits two distinct regimes: a fast initial exponential decay followed by a much longer power-law decay in which the size of the eddy current falls typically to 60% of its original value in one day. The interpretation of these observations is that the Coulomb blockade and quantum point contact devices are influenced by the local Hall potential at the edges of the 2DEG leads. The Hall potential changes the local chemical potential of the leads, and hence the properties of the devices, in a manner which reverses when the field sweep direction is reversed.

Linear conductance of quantum point contacts with deliberately broken symmetry

We investigate the linear transport properties of quantum point contacts (QPCs) whosesymmetry is deliberately broken in a controlled manner. The devices that we study consistof a conventional split-gate QPC, which is modified by the inclusion of an additionalperturbing gate that is used to modulate the electron density on one side of the device. Asthe voltage applied to this ‘finger gate’ is varied, we observe several reproduciblefeatures below the last integer plateau, as well as strong modifications of theinteger-plateau staircase. Self-consistent calculations, performed for the exact devicestructure utilized in experiment, suggest that these features are related to the abilityof the finger gate to strongly disrupt the symmetry of the QPC, reducing theelectron density significantly on one side of the device. We discuss these resultswithin the context of recent models for many-body electron transport in QPCs.