Magnetic-field-induced transport asymmetry in two-terminal circular ballistic bends

摘要

A recent experiment [Hortelano et al., Semicond. Sci. Technol. 32, 125005 (2017)] reported a rectification effect that appeared in curved narrow ballistic channels of a two-dimensional electron gas when the strength of a magnetic field applied to the channels was tuned. The phenomenon was reproduced by classical billiard simulations as resulting from a transmission asymmetry caused by diffuse boundary scattering. However, this manifests breakdown of a commonly used simple model for diffuse boundary since the magnetic-field dependence of the transmission in two-terminal geometries has to be symmetric in equilibrium. We demonstrate here that this tendency of the system predicted by the billiard simulations is a real transmission asymmetry effect that emerges in the nonequilibrium transport. We perform nonequilibrium quantum-mechanical simulations with taking into account Coulomb repulsion. Experimental observations are presented to demonstrate consistencies with the numerical results. Published under license by AIP Publishing.