Home > Research > Publications & Outputs > Conductance quantization at a half-integer plat...
View graph of relations

Conductance quantization at a half-integer plateau in a symmetric GaAs quantum wire

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
  • R. Crook
  • J. Prance
  • K. J. Thomas
  • S. J. Chorley
  • I. Farrer
  • D. A. Ritchie
  • M. Pepper
  • C. G. Smith
Close
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>2/06/2006
<mark>Journal</mark>Science
Issue number5778
Volume312
Number of pages4
Pages (from-to)1359-1362
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

We present data from an induced gallium arsenide ( GaAs) quantum wire that exhibits an additional conductance plateau at 0.5(2e(2)/h), where e is the charge of an electron and h is Planck's constant, in zero magnetic field. The plateau was most pronounced when the potential landscape was tuned to be symmetric by using low-temperature scanning-probe techniques. Source-drain energy spectroscopy and temperature response support the hypothesis that the origin of the plateau is the spontaneous spin-polarization of the transport electrons: a ferromagnetic phase. Such devices may have applications in the field of spintronics to either generate or detect a spin-polarized current without the complications associated with external magnetic fields or magnetic materials.