51 research outputs found
On Aharonov-Bohm oscillation in a ferromagnetic ring
Aharonov-Bohm effect in a ferromagnetic thin ring in diffusive regime is
theoretically studied by calculating the Cooperon and Diffuson. In addition to
the spin-orbit interaction, we include the spin-wave excitation and the spin
splitting, which are expected to be dominant sources of dephasing in
ferromagnets at low temperatures. The spin splitting turns out to kill the
spin-flip channel of Cooperon but leaves the spin-conserving channel untouched.
For the experimental confirmation of interference effect (described by
Cooperons) such as weak localization and Aharonov-Bohm oscillation with period
, we need to suppress the dominant dephasing by orbital motion. To do
this we propose experiments on a thin film or thin ring with magnetization and
external field perpendicular to the film, in which case the effective field
inside the sample is equal to the external field (magnetization does not add
up). The field is first applied strong enough to saturate the magnetization and
then carrying out the measurement down to zero field keeping the magnetization
nearly saturated, in order to avoid domain formations (negative fields may also
be investigated if the coercive field is large enough)
Conductance fluctuations in diffusive rings: Berry phase effects and criteria for adiabaticity
We study Berry phase effects on conductance properties of diffusive
mesoscopic conductors, which are caused by an electron spin moving through an
orientationally inhomogeneous magnetic field. Extending previous work, we start
with an exact, i.e. not assuming adiabaticity, calculation of the universal
conductance fluctuations in a diffusive ring within the weak localization
regime, based on a differential equation which we derive for the diffuson in
the presence of Zeeman coupling to a magnetic field texture. We calculate the
field strength required for adiabaticity and show that this strength is reduced
by the diffusive motion. We demonstrate that not only the phases but also the
amplitudes of the h/2e Aharonov-Bohm oscillations are strongly affected by the
Berry phase. In particular, we show that these amplitudes are completely
suppressed at certain magic tilt angles of the external fields, and thereby
provide a useful criterion for experimental searches. We also discuss Berry
phase-like effects resulting from spin-orbit interaction in diffusive
conductors and derive exact formulas for both magnetoconductance and
conductance fluctuations. We discuss the power spectra of the
magnetoconductance and the conductance fluctuations for inhomogeneous magnetic
fields and for spin-orbit interaction.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures; minor revisions. To appear in Phys. Rev.
Experimental study of weak antilocalization effect in a high mobility InGaAs/InP quantum well
The magnetoresistance associated with quantum interference corrections in a
high mobility, gated InGaAs/InP quantum well structure is studied as a function
of temperature, gate voltage, and angle of the tilted magnetic field.
Particular attention is paid to the experimental extraction of phase-breaking
and spin-orbit scattering times when weak anti- localization effects are
prominent. Compared with metals and low mobility semiconductors the
characteristic magnetic field in high mobility
samples is very small and the experimental dependencies of the interference
effects extend to fields several hundreds of times larger. Fitting experimental
results under these conditions therefore requires theories valid for arbitrary
magnetic field. It was found, however, that such a theory was unable to fit the
experimental data without introducing an extra, empirical, scale factor of
about 2. Measurements in tilted magnetic fields and as a function of
temperature established that both the weak localization and the weak
anti-localization effects have the same, orbital origin. Fits to the data
confirmed that the width of the low field feature, whether a weak localization
or a weak anti-localization peak, is determined by the phase-breaking time and
also established that the universal (negative) magnetoresistance observed in
the high field limit is associated with a temperature independent spin-orbit
scattering time.Comment: 13 pages including 10 figure
Updated Nucleosynthesis Constraints on Unstable Relic Particles
We revisit the upper limits on the abundance of unstable massive relic
particles provided by the success of Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis calculations. We
use the cosmic microwave background data to constrain the baryon-to-photon
ratio, and incorporate an extensively updated compilation of cross sections
into a new calculation of the network of reactions induced by electromagnetic
showers that create and destroy the light elements deuterium, he3, he4, li6 and
li7. We derive analytic approximations that complement and check the full
numerical calculations. Considerations of the abundances of he4 and li6 exclude
exceptional regions of parameter space that would otherwise have been permitted
by deuterium alone. We illustrate our results by applying them to massive
gravitinos. If they weigh ~100 GeV, their primordial abundance should have been
below about 10^{-13} of the total entropy. This would imply an upper limit on
the reheating temperature of a few times 10^7 GeV, which could be a potential
difficulty for some models of inflation. We discuss possible ways of evading
this problem.Comment: 40 pages LaTeX, 18 eps figure
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