Magnetic-field asymmetry of nonlinear mesoscopic transport

We investigate departures of the Onsager relations in the nonlinear regime of electronic transport through mesoscopic systems. We show that the nonlinear current--voltage characteristic is not an even function of the magnetic field due only to the magnetic-field dependence of the screening potential within the conductor. We illustrate this result for two types of conductors: A quantum Hall bar with an antidot and a chaotic cavity connected to quantum point contacts. For the chaotic cavity we obtain through random matrix theory an asymmetry in the fluctuations of the nonlinear conductance that vanishes rapidly with the size of the contacts.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Published versio

Long-Range Energy-Level Interaction in Small Metallic Particles

We consider the energy level statistics of non-interacting electrons which diffuse in a $d$-dimensional disordered metallic conductor of characteristic Thouless energy $E_c.$ We assume that the level distribution can be written as the Gibbs distribution of a classical one-dimensional gas of fictitious particles with a pairwise additive interaction potential $f(\varepsilon ).$ We show that the interaction which is consistent with the known correlation function of pairs of energy levels is a logarithmic repulsion for level separations $\varepsilon <E_c,$ in agreement with Random Matrix Theory. When $\varepsilon >E_c,$ $f(\varepsilon )$ vanishes as a power law in $\varepsilon /E_c$ with exponents $-{1 \over 2},-2,$ and $-{3 \over 2}$ for $d=1,2,$ and 3, respectively. While for $d=1,2$ the energy-level interaction is always repulsive, in three dimensions there is long-range level attraction after the short-range logarithmic repulsion.Comment: Saclay-s93/014 Email: [email protected] [2017: missing figure included

Universal Quantum Signatures of Chaos in Ballistic Transport

The conductance of a ballistic quantum dot (having chaotic classical dynamics and being coupled by ballistic point contacts to two electron reservoirs) is computed on the single assumption that its scattering matrix is a member of Dyson's circular ensemble. General formulas are obtained for the mean and variance of transport properties in the orthogonal (beta=1), unitary (beta=2), and symplectic (beta=4) symmetry class. Applications include universal conductance fluctuations, weak localization, sub-Poissonian shot noise, and normal-metal-superconductor junctions. The complete distribution P(g) of the conductance g is computed for the case that the coupling to the reservoirs occurs via two quantum point contacts with a single transmitted channel. The result P(g)=g^(-1+beta/2) is qualitatively different in the three symmetry classes. ***Submitted to Europhysics Letters.****Comment: 4 pages, REVTeX-3.0, INLO-PUB-94032

Integrability and Disorder in Mesoscopic Systems: Application to Orbital Magnetism

We present a semiclassical theory of weak disorder effects in small structures and apply it to the magnetic response of non-interacting electrons confined in integrable geometries. We discuss the various averaging procedures describing different experimental situations in terms of one- and two-particle Green functions. We demonstrate that the anomalously large zero-field susceptibility characteristic of clean integrable structures is only weakly suppressed by disorder. This damping depends on the ratio of the typical size of the structure with the two characteristic length scales describing the disorder (elastic mean-free-path and correlation length of the potential) in a power-law form for the experimentally relevant parameter region. We establish the comparison with the available experimental data and we extend the study of the interplay between disorder and integrability to finite magnetic fields.Comment: 38 pages, Latex, 7 Postscript figures, 1 table, to appear in Jour. Math. Physics 199

Semiclassical Theory of Time-Reversal Focusing

Time reversal mirrors have been successfully implemented for various kinds of waves propagating in complex media. In particular, acoustic waves in chaotic cavities exhibit a refocalization that is extremely robust against external perturbations or the partial use of the available information. We develop a semiclassical approach in order to quantitatively describe the refocusing signal resulting from an initially localized wave-packet. The time-dependent reconstructed signal grows linearly with the temporal window of injection, in agreement with the acoustic experiments, and reaches the same spatial extension of the original wave-packet. We explain the crucial role played by the chaotic dynamics for the reconstruction of the signal and its stability against external perturbations.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Anomaly in the relaxation dynamics close to the surface plasmon resonance

We propose an explanation for the anomalous behaviour observed in the relaxation dynamics of the differential optical transmission of noble-metal nanoparticles. Using the temperature dependences of the position and the width of the surface plasmon resonance, we obtain a strong frequency dependence in the time evolution of the transmission close to the resonance. In particular, our approach accounts for the slowdown found below the plasmon frequency. This interpretation is independent of the presence of a nearby interband transition which has been invoked previously. We therefore argue that the anomaly should also appear for alkaline nanoparticles.Comment: version published in EP

Effect of dephasing on the current statistics of mesoscopic devices

We investigate the effects of dephasing on the current statistics of mesoscopic conductors with a recently developed statistical model, focusing in particular on mesoscopic cavities and Aharonov-Bohm rings. For such devices, we analyze the influence of an arbitrary degree of decoherence on the cumulants of the current. We recover known results for the limiting cases of fully coherent and totally incoherent transport and are able to obtain detailed information on the intermediate regime of partial coherence for a varying number of open channels. We show that dephasing affects the average current, shot noise, and higher order cumulants in a quantitatively and qualitatively similar way, and that consequently shot noise or higher order cumulants of the current do not provide information on decoherence additional or complementary to what can be already obtained from the average current.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Isolated resonances in conductance fluctuations in ballistic billiards

We study numerically quantum transport through a billiard with a classically mixed phase space. In particular, we calculate the conductance and Wigner delay time by employing a recursive Green's function method. We find sharp, isolated resonances with a broad distribution of resonance widths in both the conductance and the Wigner time, in contrast to the well-known smooth conductance fluctuations of completely chaotic billiards. In order to elucidate the origin of the isolated resonances, we calculate the associated scattering states as well as the eigenstates of the corresponding closed system. As a result, we find a one-to-one correspondence between the resonant scattering states and eigenstates of the closed system. The broad distribution of resonance widths is traced to the structure of the classical phase space. Husimi representations of the resonant scattering states show a strong overlap either with the regular regions in phase space or with the hierarchical parts surrounding the regular regions. We are thus lead to a classification of the resonant states into regular and hierarchical, depending on their phase space portrait.Comment: 2 pages, 5 figures, to be published in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn., proceedings Localisation 2002 (Tokyo, Japan

Phase sensitive noise in quantum dots under periodic perturbation

We evaluate the ensemble averaged noise in a chaotic quantum dot subject to DC bias and a periodic perturbation of frequency $\Omega$. The noise displays cusps at bias $V_n=n\hbar\Omega/e$ that survive the average, even when the period of the perturbation is far shorter than the dwell time in the dot. These features are sensitive to the phase of the time-dependent scattering amplitudes of electrons to pass through the system.Comment: Published version. Improved discussion, with a few small typos correcte

A Circuit Model for Domain Walls in Ferromagnetic Nanowires: Application to Conductance and Spin Transfer Torques

We present a circuit model to describe the electron transport through a domain wall in a ferromagnetic nanowire. The domain wall is treated as a coherent 4-terminal device with incoming and outgoing channels of spin up and down and the spin-dependent scattering in the vicinity of the wall is modelled using classical resistances. We derive the conductance of the circuit in terms of general conductance parameters for a domain wall. We then calculate these conductance parameters for the case of ballistic transport through the domain wall, and obtain a simple formula for the domain wall magnetoresistance which gives a result consistent with recent experiments. The spin transfer torque exerted on a domain wall by a spin-polarized current is calculated using the circuit model and an estimate of the speed of the resulting wall motion is made.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures; submitted to Physical Review