For the spin separation at a smooth quantum Hall edge, linearize the confinement energy at a crossing. Compensating a spin energy difference by a potential-energy change gives
Here is interpreted as the specified slope of electron potential energy. If it denotes electrostatic voltage per length instead, the denominator is . The two edges of a neck and the two sides of an antidot have oppositely directed slopes; the formula is a positive local separation on any one edge. For local filling two, only the spin pair is occupied at the neck minimum: . Raising both branches with the confinement produces two crossings on each side, as shown in the original neck sketch. This fixed-slope estimate precedes self-consistent electrostatic screening.
An antidot is a depleted potential hill. guiding centres circulate around its closed equipotentials, with chirality opposite to the outer sample edge. A phase-coherent round trip contributes magnetic phase , with . A localized orbit resonant with the incident energy can transfer an electron between extended channels. If the outgoing channel returns toward the injecting reservoir, the process is resonant reflection and reduces electrical conductance. If coupling instead connects an otherwise blocked incident channel to the far reservoir, it is resonant transmission and adds electrical conductance. Transmission peaks require that forward connectivity; a closed orbit by itself does not guarantee them. Interchannel scattering can change which orbit participates.[ref]
For the antidot resonance conductance bounds with one active spin-resolved resonance, write
Here are energy broadenings; the corresponding escape rates are . In a reflection-dominated configuration with two otherwise transmitted channels, : a background can dip to . In a transmission-dominated configuration with one spectator channel and the second otherwise blocked, : peaks rise from toward . These are the two ideal channel-count examples plotted below. More generally, or ; a different spectator count changes the integer offset. The constriction filling alone does not specify every tunnel coupling or resonance height. Equal couplings permit unit resonant transfer in the isolated-level model; asymmetry, temperature and dephasing reduce the contrast. Holding the effective orbit area approximately fixed gives for one branch, not a universal charging-corrected period.
Figure 1.
Original neck spectrum, alternative channel connectivities and illustrative antidot conductance dips and peaks
. Details.
In quantum-dot versus antidot resonance topology, a quantum dot is a potential well holding a finite electron island. Its closed guiding-centre circulation is reversed relative to an antidot at the same field. With two barriers in series, current follows source dot drain; off resonance there need not be a direct conducting path. A gate shifts a level or an addition electrochemical potential into alignment with the reservoirs and produces a electrical conductance peak. For an isolated coherent spin-resolved level, the zero-temperature peak is at most and reaches it only for equal couplings; unresolved noninteracting spin degeneracy doubles this bound. In weak sequential tunnelling, peak height depends on rates and temperature rather than being quantized. Charging produces Coulomb blockade peaks with spacing set by addition energy and gate lever arm. An antidot also supports discrete orbit/charging resonances, but can be side-coupled to already open channels and produce dips. Gate voltage changes both orbit area and confinement, whereas a magnetic sweep directly changes enclosed flux.
Figure 2.
Original series-dot paths and gate resonances compared with a side-coupled antidot
. Details.
Coulomb interactions require a self-consistent confinement potential. A gradual decrease in electron density cannot leave arbitrary uncompensated donor charge at no cost. Partly occupied Landau levels have a large charge response: electrostatic screening flattens their effective energy near the Fermi energy over compressible quantum Hall edge strips. Between them, integer-filled incompressible quantum Hall edge strips have a gap, weak density response and most of the potential variation. In an idealized cross-section the effective branch thus alternates between flat, partially occupied portions and rising portions crossing a gap; its carrier density varies oppositely. The bare levels still have Landau level and spin splittings locally, but the common electrostatic potential is no longer an imposed straight slope. exchange interaction can additionally renormalize spin gaps. Widths must follow electrostatics and the density gradient, so the unscreened separation is not a quantitative screened-strip width.[ref]
Integer Hall transport and filling. A clean two-dimensional electron gas at low temperature in a strong perpendicular magnetic field forms Landau levels with orbital spacing , where . Examples include semiconductor heterojunctions and inversion layers. On integer plateaus,
with integer plateau index . The density of states in one resolved Landau branch is per unit area, so the actual filling factor is
It varies continuously with density and field. Within a disorder-broadened plateau, localized states can change occupation without changing the integer number of transporting edge branches; the filling need not equal the plateau integer at every point in that interval.
At a boundary, the confining potential bends the Landau energies through the Fermi energy, giving chiral edge states, interpreted semiclassically as skipping orbits. Opposite edges carry opposite propagation directions. An ideal spin-resolved transmitted edge channel contributes ; such channels give . Chirality and suppressed backscattering between well-separated edges explain vanishing longitudinal voltage. Ideal reservoirs and appropriate probe equilibration are part of this edge-state transport model.
A gated antidot. A local repulsive gate potential depletes an island inside the Hall bar. Edge states circulate around its boundary as closed antidot orbits. When a localized orbit is weakly coupled to extended channels on opposite sides, resonance at the reservoir electrochemical potential permits backscattering and produces conductance dips on an otherwise quantized transmitting plateau. If the path instead adds a transmission route between otherwise disconnected channels, resonant peaks can occur: the sign depends on the device's tunnel connectivity and what conductance is measured. An isolated antidot too far from every conducting edge has negligible transport signature.
For the simplest opposite-edge backscattering picture with one active branch,
where branches would otherwise transmit. A gate moves the resonance through the Fermi energy by changing both confinement and orbit area. Stronger depletion of the constrictions also changes , producing broad conductance plateaus or pinch-off, with narrow resonances superposed where coupling is finite. Low temperature resolves individual resonances; thermal and tunnel broadening can merge them.
For a fixed-area single-electron orbit, a phase change of corresponds to
Sweeping gate voltage at fixed field shifts enclosed area and level energy, giving oscillatory resonance tracks. This period is not automatically set by the lithographic gate area. Charging energy, self-consistent screening and spin branches modify spacings; in particular coupled spin branches in a charging model can generate two resonances per cycle without changing the electron flux quantum.[ref]
Figure 1.
Original schematic antidot resonances on transmitting plateaus: varied coupling and gate-controlled channel opening; illustrative coordinates rather than experimental data
. Details.
No antidot dimensions, capacitances, lever arms or measured spectrum are supplied, so absolute periods and resonance voltages cannot be extracted. The sketch illustrates the mechanisms and regimes requested, rather than inventing a numerical device data set.
Improving the bare edge potential. A picture of noninteracting Landau levels simply intersecting a prescribed smooth confinement ignores the redistribution and screening of electron charge. A self-consistent electrostatic calculation combines gate and donor potentials, electron density and Coulomb interactions. Where a partially occupied Landau level has a large density response, electrons screen strongly and create a compressible strip with nearly pinned level energy. Regions with the chemical potential in a gap are incompressible and support much of the potential change. Consequently the screened edge alternates between compressible and incompressible strips, rather than preserving an arbitrary externally drawn slope. Finite temperature, disorder, exchange and edge reconstruction can require refinements beyond the simplest electrostatic model.[ref]
Fractional states and composite fermions. Very clean two-dimensional systems show plateaus at selected fractional fillings, with small longitudinal resistance and a many-electron excitation gap. Electron-electron correlations are essential; partial filling of a noninteracting Landau level is not enough. The simplest composite fermion binds two statistical flux quanta to each electron. This is a representation of correlated electron motion, not a physical solenoid attached to a particle. With , , and density , the mean effective field is
Define a signed effective filling . Then
For , filled composite-fermion levels produce . For reversed effective field write , giving ; the nontrivial fractional upper sequence starts with . If effective filling is defined as nonnegative using , retain these as separate field-direction branches instead of using the signed expression blindly. At the mean vanishes and the effective filling diverges, so it is not an integer composite-fermion Hall plateau in this simplest construction. Attaching two flux quanta preserves fermionic statistics; the emergent integer-like gaps organize a prominent sequence of fractional electronic states.[ref]