Non-adiabatic pumping of single electrons affected by magnetic fields

Christoph Leicht, Bernd Kaestner, Vyacheslavs Kashcheyevs, Philipp Mirovsky, Thomas Weimann, Klaus Pierz, Hans-Werner Schumacher

Published 2009-09-15Version 1

Non-adiabatic pumping of discrete charges, realized by a dynamical quantum dot in an AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructure, is studied under influence of a perpendicular magnetic field. Application of an oscillating voltage in the GHz-range to one of two top gates, crossing a narrow wire and confining a quantum dot, leads to quantized pumped current plateaus in the gate characteristics. The regime of pumping one single electron is traced back to the diverse tunneling processes into and out-of the dot. Extending the theory to multiple electrons allows to investigate conveniently the pumping characteristics in an applied magnetic field. In this way, a qualitatively different behavior between pumping even or odd numbers of electrons is extracted.