Mesoscopic magnetoelectric effect in chaotic quantum dots

M. L. Polianski

Published 2009-08-25, updated 2009-12-03Version 2

The magnitude of the inverse Faraday effect (IFE), a static magnetization due to an ac electric field, can be strongly increased in a mesoscopic sample, sensitive to time-reversal symmetry (TRS) breaking. Random rectification of ac voltages leads to a magnetization flux, which can be detected by an asymmetry of Hall resistances in a multi-terminal setup. In the absence of applied magnetic field through a chaotic quantum dot the IFE scale, quadratic in voltage, is found as an analytic function of the ac frequency, screening, and coupling to the contacts and floating probes, and numerically it does not show any effect of spin-orbit interaction. Our results qualitatively agree with a recent experiment on TRS-breaking in a six-terminal Hall cross.