Mechanically controlled quantum switch defined on a curved 2DEG

Abstract

To investigate quantum nature of two dimensional electrons subject to high perpendicular magnetic fields, usually a planar electronic Fabry-Perot interferometer is utilized. In this work, we investigate an interferometer defined on a curved heterostructure. In the presence of a magnetic field perpendicular to the cylindrical axis, the location and the properties of the edge channels depend on the radial component of the magnetic field. Considering a curved structure, we perform numerical and semi-analytical calculations to determine widths of the incompressible edge states. We observe that the edge states form a closed loop for certain magnetic field strengths yielding observation of conductance oscillations, which can be manipulated by changing the Azimuthal angle mechanically. In addition, we investigate the effect of spin polarization on the edge state distribution considering Zeeman splitting and obtained odd integer edge states. The proposed experiment would yield a novel method to clarify the ongoing debate on the origin of conductance oscillations, namely whether they stem from Aharonov-Bohm phase or charging effects. Graphical abstract