Single-electron transport through quantum point contact

Abstract

Here, we employ a numerical approach to investigate the transport and conductance characteristics of a quantum point contact. A quantum point contact is a narrow constriction of a width comparable to the electron wavelength defined in a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) by means of split-gate or etching technique. Their properties have been widely investigated in the experiments. In our study, we define a quantum Hall based split-gate quantum point contact with standard gate geometry. Firstly, we obtain the spatial distribution of incompressible strips (current channels) by applying a self consistent Thomas-Fermi method to a realistic heterostructure under quantized Hall conditions. Later, time-dependent Schrodinger equation is solved for electrons injected in the current channels. The transport characteristics and time-evolutions are analyzed in the integer filling factor regime (v = 1) with the single electron density. The results confirm that the current direction in a realistic quantum point contact can be controllable with the external interventions.