Measurements of flux dependent screening in Aharonov-Bohm rings

R. Deblock, Y. Noat, H. Bouchiat, B. Reulet, D. Mailly

Published 1999-10-04, updated 2000-04-19Version 3

In order to investigate the effect of electronic phase coherence on screening we have measured the flux dependent polarizability of isolated mesoscopic rings at 350 MHz. At low temperature (below 100 mK) both non-dissipative and dissipative parts of the polarizability exhibit flux oscillations with a period of half a flux quantum in a ring. The sign and amplitude of the effect are in good agreement with recent theoretical predictions. The observed positive magneto-polarizability corresponds to an enhancement of screening when time reversal symmetry is broken. The effect of electronic density and temperature are also measured.