1,180 research outputs found
Characterization of one-dimensional quantum channels in InAs/AlSb
We report the magnetoresistance characteristics of one-dimensional electrons
confined in a single InAs quantum well sandwiched between AlSb barriers. As a
result of a novel nanofabrication scheme that utilizes a 3nm-shallow wet
chemical etching to define the electrostatic lateral confinement, the system is
found to possess three important properties: specular boundary scattering, a
strong lateral confinement potential, and a conducting channel width that is
approximately the lithography width. Ballistic transport phenomena, including
the quenching of the Hall resistance, the last Hall plateau, and a strong
negative bend resistance, are observed at 4K in cross junctions with sharp
corners. In a ring geometry, we have observed Aharonov-Bohm interference that
exhibits characteristics different from those of the GaAs counterpart due to
the ballistic nature of electron transport and the narrowness of the conducting
channel width.Comment: pdf-file, 8 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.
Spatially inhomogeneous electron state deep in the extreme quantum limit of strontium titanate
When an electronic system is subjected to a sufficiently strong magnetic
field that the cyclotron energy is much larger than the Fermi energy, the
system enters the "extreme quantum limit" (EQL) and becomes susceptible to a
number of instabilities. Bringing a three-dimensional electronic system deeply
into the EQL can be difficult, however, since it requires a small Fermi energy,
large magnetic field, and low disorder. Here we present an experimental study
of the EQL in lightly-doped single crystals of strontium titanate, which remain
good bulk conductors down to very low temperatures and high magnetic fields.
Our experiments probe deeply into the regime where theory has long predicted
electron-electron interactions to drive the system into a charge density wave
or Wigner crystal state. A number of interesting features arise in the
transport in this regime, including a striking re-entrant nonlinearity in the
current-voltage characteristics and a saturation of the quantum-limiting field
at low carrier density. We discuss these features in the context of possible
correlated electron states, and present an alternative picture based on
magnetic-field induced puddling of electrons.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 7 pages of supplementary information; to appear
in Nature Communication
Aharonov-Bohm interference in topological insulator nanoribbons
Topological insulators represent novel phases of quantum matter with an
insulating bulk gap and gapless edges or surface states. The two-dimensional
topological insulator phase was predicted in HgTe quantum wells and confirmed
by transport measurements. Recently, Bi2Se3 and related materials have been
proposed as three-dimensional topological insulators with a single Dirac cone
on the surface and verified by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy
experiments. Here, we show unambiguous transport evidence of topological
surface states through periodic quantum interference effects in layered
single-crystalline Bi2Se3 nanoribbons. Pronounced Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in
the magnetoresistance clearly demonstrate the coverage of two-dimensional
electrons on the entire surface, as expected from the topological nature of the
surface states. The dominance of the primary h/e oscillation and its
temperature dependence demonstrate the robustness of these electronic states.
Our results suggest that topological insulator nanoribbons afford novel
promising materials for future spintronic devices at room temperature.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, RevTex forma
h/e oscillations in interlayer transport of delafossites
Funding: This project was funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant no. 715730, MiTopMat) and also was supported by the Max Planck Society. A.P.M. and R.M. acknowledge support from the Würzburg-Dresden Cluster of Excellence on Complexity and Topology in Quantum Matter (EXC 2147). M.D.B., P.M., and V.S. acknowledge studentship funding from the EPSRC under grant no. EP/L015110/1. A.S. was supported by the Israel Science Foundation, the European Research Council (Project LEGOTOP), and the DFG through projectno.CRC-183. M.K. acknowledges support from the SIRIUS irradiation facility through project no. EMIR 2019 18-7099.Microstructures can be carefully designed to reveal the quantum phase of the wave-like nature of electrons in a metal. Here, we report phase-coherent oscillations of out-of-plane magnetoresistance in the layered delafossites PdCoO2 and PtCoO2 The oscillation period is equivalent to that determined by the magnetic flux quantum, h/e, threading an area defined by the atomic interlayer separation and the sample width, where h is Planck's constant and e is the charge of an electron. The phase of the electron wave function appears robust over length scales exceeding 10 micrometers and persisting up to temperatures of T > 50 kelvin. We show that the experimental signal stems from a periodic field modulation of the out-of-plane hopping. These results demonstrate extraordinary single-particle quantum coherence lengths in delafossites.PostprintPeer reviewe
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