Institute for Solid State Physics, University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba, 277-8581, Japan.
Sci Rep. 2017 Aug 11;7(1):7909. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-06818-4.
The highly successful Dirac equation predicts peculiar phenomena such as Klein tunnelling and Zitterbewegung (ZB) of electrons. From its conception by Erwin Schrödinger, ZB has been considered key in understanding relativistic quantum mechanics. However, observing the ZB of electrons has proved difficult, and instead various emulations of the phenomenon have been proposed producing several successes. Concerning charge transport in semiconductors and graphene, expectations were high but little has been reported. Here, we report a surprisingly large ZB effect on charge transport in a semiconductor nanostructure playing "flat pinball". The setup is a narrow strip of InAs two-dimensional electron gas with strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling. Six quantum point contacts act as pinball pockets. In transiting between two contacts, ZB appears as a large reproducible conductance fluctuation that depends on the in-plane magnetic field. Numerical simulations successfully reproduced our experimental observations confirming that ZB causes this conductance fluctuation.
这个高度成功的狄拉克方程预测了一些特殊现象，如克莱因隧穿和电子的德布罗意波（ZB）。自埃尔温·薛定谔提出以来，ZB 一直被认为是理解相对论量子力学的关键。然而，观察电子的 ZB 一直很困难，因此提出了各种对该现象的模拟，取得了一些成功。在半导体和石墨烯中的电荷输运方面，人们寄予厚望，但报道甚少。在这里，我们报告了在半导体纳米结构中观察到的令人惊讶的大 ZB 效应，该结构在充当“平面弹球机”时会发生电荷输运。该设置是一个具有强拉什巴自旋轨道耦合的 InAs 二维电子气窄条。六个量子点接触充当弹球口袋。在两个接触之间转换时，ZB 表现为一个大的、可重复的电导波动，这取决于平面内的磁场。数值模拟成功地再现了我们的实验观察结果，证实了 ZB 导致了这种电导波动。
