Mesoscopic persistent currents in a strong magnetic field
Abstract
Recent precision measurements of mesoscopic persistent currents in normal-metal rings rely on the interaction between the magnetic moment generated by the current and a large applied magnetic field. Motivated by this technique, we extend the theory of mesoscopic persistent currents to include the effect of the finite thickness of the ring and the resulting penetration of the large magnetic field. We discuss both the sample-specific typical current and the ensemble-averaged current which is dominated by the effects of electron-electron interactions. We find that the magnetic field strongly suppresses the interaction-induced persistent current and so provides direct access to the independent-electron contribution. Moreover, the technique allows for measurements of the entire distribution function of the persistent current. We also discuss the consequences of the Zeeman splitting and spin-orbit scattering, and include a detailed and quantitative comparison of our theoretical results to experimental data.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1002.0700,
title = {Mesoscopic persistent currents in a strong magnetic field},
author = {Eran Ginossar and Leonid I. Glazman and Teemu Ojanen and Felix von Oppen and William E. Shanks and Ania C. Bleszynski-Jayich and J. G. E. Harris},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1002.0700},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
12 pages, 7 figures