The conductance and the transmittance phase shifts of a two-terminal Aharonov-Bohm (AB) ring are analyzed in the presence of mechanical displacements due to coupling to an external can- tilever. We show that phase rigidity is broken, even in the linear response regime, by means of inelastic scattering due to phonons. Our device provides a way of observing continuous variation of the transmission phase through a two-terminal nano-electro-mechanical system (NEMS). We also propose measurements of phase shifts as a way to determine the strength of the electron-phonon coupling in NEMS.
@article{arxiv.0706.2263,
title = {Phase rigidity breaking in open Aharonov-Bohm ring coupled to a cantilever},
author = {F. Romeo and R. Citro and M. Marinaro},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0706.2263},
year = {2007}
}