Influence of Coulomb interaction on the Aharonov-Bohm effect in an electronic Fabry-Perot interferometer

TL;DR

This paper investigates how Coulomb interactions affect the Aharonov-Bohm effect in an electronic Fabry-Perot interferometer, explaining experimental observations through a capacitance model and analyzing dephasing mechanisms.

Contribution

It introduces a capacitance model to explain experimental flux and gate periodicity in an FPI considering Coulomb interactions and discusses the suppression of visibility due to Coulomb blockade and shot noise.

Findings

Capacitance model explains experimental periodicities.

Coulomb blockade influences conductance oscillations.

Shot noise causes dephasing and visibility suppression.

Abstract

We study the role of Coulomb interaction in an electronic Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) realized with chiral edge states in the integer quantum Hall regime in the limit of weak backscattering. Assuming that a compressible Coulomb island in a bulk region of the FPI is formed, we develop a capacitance model which explains the plethora of experimental data on the flux and gate periodicity of conductance oscillations. It is also shown that a suppression of finite-bias visibility stems from a combination of weak Coulomb blockade and a nonequilibrium dephasing by the quantum shot noise.