1995/01/13 by George Kirczenow, Kirczenow, George
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Condensed Matter (cond-mat) #FOS: Physical sciences #Molecular Junctions and Nanostructures #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Surface and Thin Film Phenomena
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/9501058
openalex publication_date 1995/01/13 · openalex created_date 2022/10/05 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The remarkably large persistent currents that are observed in disordered\nmicron-scale gold rings at low temperatures have recently been explained in a\ntheory of non-interacting electrons scattered by crystal grain boundaries. The\npresent article examines the possibility that the basic physics underlying this\nexplanation may also have observable consequences in a different system, a\nballistic two-dimensional semiconductor ring with a potential barrier. It is\npredicted, using computer simulations, that such semiconductor rings can\nexhibit large persistent currents ~ evF/L (L is the ring circumference),\ndespite the electron transmission probability through the barrier being small,\nin the regime of quantum-mechanical tunneling of electrons through the barrier.\nThis, like the phenomenon observed in gold rings, is a manifestation of the\nfundamental dissimilarity of non-equilibrium transport phenomena and\nequilibrium persistent currents.\n