Inelastic effects in Aharonov-Bohm molecular interferometer

TL;DR

This paper investigates how electron-phonon interactions affect the magnetoconductance in molecular Aharonov-Bohm interferometers, revealing increased flux sensitivity with stronger coupling, contrary to expectations from gating effects.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of inelastic effects due to electron-phonon coupling in molecular AB interferometers using nonequilibrium Green's functions, highlighting novel flux sensitivity behavior.

Findings

Electron-phonon coupling causes phase shifts without changing electron lifetime at low bias.

Magnetoconductance becomes more flux-sensitive as electron-phonon coupling increases.

Contrasts with electrical gating effects in similar systems.

Abstract

Inelastic effects arising from electron-phonon coupling in molecular Aharonov-Bohm (AB) interferometers are studied using the nonequilibrium Green's function method. Results for the magnetoconductance are compared for different values of the electron-phonon coupling strength. At low bias voltages, the coupling to the phonons does not change the lifetime and leads mainly to scattering phase shifts of the conducting electrons. Surprisingly, opposite to the behavior of an electrical gate, the magnetoconductance of the molecular AB interferometer becomes more sensitive to the threading magnetic flux as the electron-phonon coupling is increased.