Local signatures of electron-electron scattering in an electronic cavity

Abstract

We image equilibrium and non-equilibrium transport through a two-dimensional electronic cavity using scanning gate microscopy (SGM). Injecting electrons into the cavity through a quantum point contact close to equilibrium, we raster-scan a weakly invasive tip above the cavity regions and measure the modulated conductance through the cavity. Varying the electron injection energy between ±2 meV, we observe that conductance minima turn into maxima beyond the energy threshold of ±0.6 meV. This observation bears similarity to previous measurements by Jura et al. [Jura et al., Phys. Rev. B 82, 155328 (2010)] who used a strongly invasive tip potential to study electron injection into an open two-dimensional electron gas. This resemblance suggests a similar microscopic origin based on electron-electron interactions.