Fabry - Perot interference in a nanotube electron waveguide

Abstract

The behaviour of traditional electronic devices can be understood in terms of the classical diffusive motion of electrons. As the size of a device becomes comparable to the electron coherence length, however, quantum interference between electron waves becomes increasingly important, leading to dramatic changes in device properties. This classical-to-quantum transition in device behaviour suggests the possibility for nanometer-sized electronic elements that make use of quantum coherence. Molecular electronic devices are promising candidates for realizing such device elements because the electronic motion in molecules is inherently quantum mechanical and it can be modified by well defined chemistry. Here we describe an example of a coherent molecular electronic device whose behaviour is explicitly dependent on quantum interference between propagating electron waves-a Fabry-Perot electron resonator based on individual single-walled carbon nanotubes with near-perfect ohmic contacts to electrodes. In these devices, the nanotubes act as coherent electron waveguides, with the resonant cavity formed between the two nanotube-electrode interfaces. We use a theoretical model based on the multichannel Landauer-Büttiker formalism to analyse the device characteristics and find that coupling between the two propagating modes of the nanotubes caused by electron scattering at the nanotube-electrode interfaces is important.

Aharonov–Bohm oscillations in a quasi-ballistic three-dimensional topological insulator nanowire

“…3b) confirms the predominant h/e AB and absent h/2e AAS oscillations, implying quasi-ballistic, phase-coherent transport along the device. Quasi-ballistic behaviour is further confirmed by the observation of Fabry-Perot oscillations [22][23][24][25] in similar TI nanowire devices (see Supplementary Fig. 1 and Supplementary Note 1).…”

Conductance properties of nanotubes coupled to superconducting leads: signatures of Andreev states dynamics

“…The theory provides a good fitting of the experimental results. Carbon nanotubes connected to metallic electrodes allow to study many different regimes in mesoscopic electron transport exhibiting either ballistic or diffusive behavior [1,2]; Luttinger liquid features [3], etc. Several experiments [4] have demonstrated that carbon nanotubes weakly coupled to normal leads can also exhibit Coulomb blockade and Kondo effect, i.e.…”

Sagnac interference in carbon nanotubes

“…Compared to the more familiar Fabry-Pérot oscillations, 17 Sagnac oscillations are expected to have a much larger period in gate voltage, and, as we show, in noninteracting wires survive to a temperature a factor of v F / u higher than that required to observe Fabry-Pérot oscillations.…”

“…ing that Fabry-Pérot oscillations have been observed in nanotubes up to T =10 K, 17 Sagnac oscillations should be observed up to about 70 K in nanotubes, despite the strong interactions.…”

“…The Luttinger liquid behavior in these systems [14][15][16] was partially verified through the observation of Fabry-Pérot interference in finite sections of the nanotube. 17 The Fabry-Pérot interference should, in principle, allow the observation of spin-charge separation and determination of the interaction parameters of the Luttinger liquid. 18 But the similar energy scales of the spin and charge modes' interference patterns have made such experimental observation challenging.…”