We study electron transport through a semiconductor quantum ring with one input and two output terminals for an elastic scatterer present within one of the arms of the ring. We demonstrate that the scatterer not only introduces asymmetry in the transport probability to the two output leads but also reduces the visibility of the Aharonov-Bohm conductance oscillations. This reduction occurs in spite of the phase coherence of the elastic scattering and is due to interruption of the electron circulation around the ring by the potential defect. The results are in a qualitative agreement with a recent experiment by Strambini et al. [Phys. Rev. B 79, 195443 (2009)]. We also indicate that the magnetic symmetry of the sum of conductance of both the output leads as obtained in the experiment can be understood as resulting from the invariance of backscattering to the input lead with respect to the magnetic field orientation.

We investigate a scattering of electron which is injected individually into an empty ballistic channel containing a cavity that is Coulomb coupled to a quantum ring charged with a single-electron. We solve the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for the electron pair with an exact account for the electron-electron correlation. Absorption of energy and angular momentum by the quantum ring is not an even function of the external magnetic field. As a consequence we find that the electron backscattering probability is asymmetric in the magnetic field and thus violates Onsager symmetry.

Abstract. We study the current flow through semiconductor quantum rings. In high magnetic field the current is usually injected to the arm of the ring preferred by classical magnetic forces. However, for narrow magnetic field intervals that appear periodically on the magnetic field scale the current is injected to the other arm of the ring. We indicate that the appearance of the anomalous -non-classical -current circulation results from Fano interference involving localized resonant states. The identification of the Fano interference is based on the comparison of the solution of the scattering problem with the results of the stabilization method. The latter employs the bound-state type calculations and allows to extract both the energy of metastable states localized within the ring and the width of resonances by analysis of the energy spectrum of a finite size system in function of its length. The Fano resonances involving states of anomalous current circulation become extremely narrow on both magnetic field and energy scales. This is consistent with the orientation of the Lorentz force that tends to keep the electron within the ring and thus increases the lifetime of the electron localization within the ring. Absence of periodic Fano resonances in electron transfer probability through a quantum ring containing an elastic scatterer is also explained.arXiv:1011.1730v1 [cond-mat.mes-hall]

We consider electron transport in a quantum wire with a side-coupled quantum ring in a twodimensional model that accounts for a finite width of the channels. We use the finite difference technique to solve the scattering problem as well as to determine the ring-localized states of the energy continuum. The backscattering probability exhibits Fano peaks for magnetic fields for which a ring-localized states appear at the Fermi level. We find that the width of the Fano resonances changes at high magnetic field. The width is increased (decreased) for resonant states with current circulation that produce the magnetic dipole moment that is parallel (antiparallel) to the external magnetic field. We indicate that the opposite behavior of Fano resonances due to localized states with clockwise and counterclockwise currents results from the magnetic forces which change the strength of their coupling to the channel and modify the lifetime of localized states.

We study the electron transport in three terminal junctions and quantum rings looking for the classical deflection of electron trajectories in the presence of intersubband scattering. We indicate that although the Aharonov-Bohm oscillations and the Lorentz force effects co-exist in the low subband transport, for higher Fermi energies a simultaneous observation of both effects is difficult and calls for carefully formed structures. In particular, in quantum rings with channels wider than the input lead the Lorentz force is well resolved but the Aharonov-Bohm periodicity is lost in chaotic scattering events. In quantum rings with equal lengths of the channels and T-shaped junctions the Aharonov-Bohm oscillations are distinctly periodic but the Lorentz force effects are not well pronounced. We find that systems with wedge-shaped junctions allow for observation of both the periodic Aharonov-Bohm oscillations and the magnetic deflection.